Wreck-It Ralph Wrecks the Competition

[DejaVu]

Whoever first pitched ‘Wreck-It Ralph‘ certainly got a nice big bonus check from Disney today. A cute hook that appeals to adults and kids + positive reviews = one of the biggest openings in weeks. And hey! ‘Flight‘ didn’t do too shabby either! Wait…are this*good*box office numbers? Does this mean the holiday movie season has officially arrived? Yes. Yes it has.

Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	Wreck-It Ralph	$49,100,000	$13,086	$49,100,000
2	Flight	$25,010,000	$13,275	$25,010,000
3	Argo	$10,245,000 (-15.2)	$3,693	$75,896,000
4	The Man With the Iron Fists	$8,219,000	$4,400	$8,219,000
5	Taken 2	$6,000,000 (-22.2)	$2,274	$125,667,000
6	Cloud Atlas	$5,250,000 (-45.4)	$2,608	$18,262,000
7	Hotel Transylvania	$4,500,000 (-52.4)	$1,540	$137,568,000
8	Paranormal Activity 4	$4,300,000 (-49.5)	$1,430	$49,577,000
9	Here Comes the Boom	$3,600,000 (-30.9)	$1,556	$35,572,000
10	Silent Hill: Revelation	$3,300,000 (-58.9)	$1,125	$13,900,000

Anyone who doubted the power of ‘Wreck-It Ralph’s “Toy Story with video games” concept has been officially silenced to the tune of $49 million. For a non-Pixar, non-sequel animated movie, that’s big (and the inevitable ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2′ will open even bigger). Family audiences were hungry for something new after riding the ‘Hotel Transylvania‘ train for the past month and if buzz remains strong, ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ could play well into December. Our early estimates will put it within spitting distance of $200 million when all is said and done, but we’ll see what happens. Anyway, its arrival has effectively ended ‘Hotel Transylvania’s incredibly successful run, causing it to plummet to the number seven spot with $4.5 million. It’s going to vanish in the coming weeks with $150 million in the bag.

Although it only grossed half as much as ‘Wreck-It Ralph,’ the opening of ‘Flight’ is just as strong (if not stronger) when you take a look at the details. It’s an R-rated character study that runs two and a half hours and relied solely on Denzel Washington’s star power in the marketing. In other words: tough sell. But never doubt the power of Mr. Washington, whose strong following (along with the film’s early awards season buzz) earned the film $25 million and a higher per-screen average than ‘Wreck-It Ralph.’ Director Robert Zemeckis’ return to live action is officially success…unless something goes horribly wrong next week.

In the third spot, ‘Argo‘ continued to be the little hit of 2012, dropping a minuscule 15% for another $10 million, bringing its current total to $75 million. This is proof that massive opening weekends aren’t the only thing you need for a movie to be a hit. Make something good and the audiences will continue to come, week after week.

Less successful was ‘The Man With the Iron Fists,’ which opened in the fourth spot with $8 million. We hate to be the ones to say it, but perhaps audiences just weren’t ready/didn’t care about a silly, ultra-violent kung fu epic directed by the RZA. They also continued to not care about ‘Cloud Atlas,’ which fell to the sixth spot with $5 million. In a couple of years, audiences will probably discover and fall in love with these movies on DVD, but that’s life.

In the middle of it all, ‘Taken 2‘ held on, grossing $6 million for a $125 million total. It may not reach the heights of part one, but those are good numbers right there.

As for the bottom three spots…well, they’re all a little sad, albeit in their own special ways. ‘Paranormal Activity 4‘ is on the cusp of crossing the $50 million mark, but that’s a far cry from the $100 million made by its predecessor. ‘Here Comes the Boom‘ has made a slightly respectable $35 million, but this is proof that Kevin James probably isn’t a movie star. And finally, there’s ‘Silent Hill: Revelation,’ which exists and played to some empty theaters over the weekend.

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