Articles

December 26, 2011
 

HOLIDAY WEEKEND BOXOFFICE December 23-26

>Based on actual results for Friday, December 23-Sunday, December 25 and studio projections for Monday, December 26, the four-day holiday weekend continues to look dominated by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, soft openings for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Adventures of Tintin and We Bought a Zoo.  However, War Horse is showing promise in its limited run so far (opening Sunday), while The Darkest Hour (also opening Sunday) is doing very little business, another attempt at the curious strategy of opening a horror-themed film on Christmas Day.

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (the fourth M:I film) is looking like $46.2 million Friday-Monday, with $78.6 million to date domestically.  

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (the second Holmes) is looking like $31.8 million from Friday-Monday and $90.6 million to date domestically.

Holdover Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (the third in the series) is headed for $20.0 million Friday-Monday and $56.9 million to date domestically.
Newcomer Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on pace for $19.4 million Friday-Monday and $28.8 million since its Wednesday opening.
In a similar release pattern, The Adventures of TIntin is headed for $16.1 million Friday-Monday and $24.1 million since Wednesday.
Opening Friday, We Bought a Zoo is headed for $15.6 million Friday-Monday.
With only two days under its belt, War Horse should stand with $15.0 million Sunday-Monday.  To put this number in perspective, if War Horse had opened Wednesday or Friday, it would probably be ranked in third place overall, just after Sherlock Holmes with around $24-25 million for the four-day holiday weekend.
Finally, also opening Sunday, The Darkest Hour is DOA with $5.5 million projected Sunday-Monday.
Preliminary international numbers will be posted shortly.  Updates of projected domestic final figures for each film will be updated later in the week.
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About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."