Weekend Box Office (01/13/13): Zero Dark Thirty tops while Gangster Squad disappoints and Haunted House overperforms.

After nearly a month in limited release, Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (review) finally went wide this weekend and it grossed $24 million to top the weekend box office. The film now has a $29 million cume.  All eyes were on this one, with the big question being whether critical acclaim and film punditry would translate into mainstream interest.  Obviously the current 'does the movie promote torture?' controversy brought the film all kinds of free publicity, but I'd argue it scared off just as many as it brought it.  By the way, no it doesn't endorse torture because... well just watch the movie again (essay 01/essay 02)!  Anyway, the closest comparison is the Martin Luther King Day Jr. weekend wide-release debut of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down eleven years ago next weekend, which pulled in $33 million over four days and $28 million over Fri-Sun.  The 'hunt for Bin Laden' film's debut is a bit lower, especially when inflation is accounted for (BHD's 3-day total is around $38 million in 2013 dollars), but the Scott picture was pretty much a nonstop action picture while Bigelow's is an icy and often cold 2.5 hour procedural where even the climactic action sequence is meant to disturb more than excite.  The film played 59% male and 62% over 30. Sony did a great job selling this one somewhat falsely as a triumphant action drama, although they didn't seem to make as much of an effort to bring in females for what is indeed a female-centric character drama (Jessica Chastain is terrific here).  Despite a merely okay  2.6x weekend multiplier, expect pretty strong legs as this becomes the defacto water-cooler Oscar contender (Oscar nomination essay 01/Oscar nomination essay 02), the one everyone has to see in order to participate in the national dialogue.

In an alternate universe, one where The Gangster Squad opened on September 4th and Zero Dark Thirty opened wide in late December, Open Road would have had the weekend to itself for the Marlon Wayans found-footage horror spoof A Haunted House.  Financed for just $2.5 million, the picture still withstood heavy competition and debuted with $18.8 million.  This was somewhat of a 'passion project' for Wayans, having had the Scary Movie franchise more or less taken from them after the underwhelming second installment (he called it, not incorrectly, more of a Celebrity Rehab that a satirical series at this point).  Anyway, the film received expectantly terrible reviews, but the utter absence of dumb comedy in the marketplace right now, as well as the obvious draw for African American audiences, helped it become hugely profitable in just its first three days.  It actually had a surprisingly high 2.8x weekend multiplier, meaning that there was a clear demand for what this film was selling.  We're actually getting a Scary Movie 5 this coming April, starring the likes of Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen (as well as relative innocent bystander Ashley Tisdale), so it will be interesting to see how the next chapter of the original franchise compares with this cheaper offshoot.

Coming in third place was The Gangster Squad (review), which took in $16.7 million.  The all-star period action thriller, starring the likes of Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn none of whom are 'box office'), was originally slated to be released on September 4th of 2012 before it was delayed and partially reshot in the aftermath of the Aurora theater shooting in July of last year.  At the time it was originally delayed, Zero Dark Thirty was supposed to open wide over Christmas, so Warner Bros. figured it could dominate the early-2013 slot.  Of course, Warner Bros. couldn't predict yet another shooting rampage would occur just under a month prior to this weekend, casting a newly negative light on gun play in cinema.  The continuing 'violence in cinema... discuss!' distraction plus the unexpected impact of Zero Dark Thirty would imply that Warner Bros. was probably better off just leaving the film as is in its original September 4th slot.  Better to be one of the very biggest films in September with a release date all to itself than having to slug it out with an entire slate of popular Oscar nominated adult fare. It's a guilty pleasure good time, full of dumb plot turns, overacting, and graphic violence, but it's no match for the sheer amount of high quality adult fare out right now.  Especially considering how much in addition to the film's $75 million budget Warner Bros. had to spend to reshoot, re-edit and then re-market the picture, The Gangster Squad should have just stayed put.  It stands to reason that leaving it where it was could have garned *at least* $16.7 million without the additional expenses and headaches that the delay caused.

The rest of the news is all holdover related.  The big movie from last weekend, Texas Chainsaw 3D, took an epic second weekend plunge of 76%.  That's more than the 72% plunge of A Nightmare On Elm Street but less than the 80% drop for Friday the 13th and tied with the 76% drop for The Devil Inside this time last year.  It's still among the very largest second-weekend drops in history for a film on more than 2,500 screens.  Sure the film has grossed $30.7 million, but Lionsgate may want to put sequel plans on hold.  Django Unchained is holding strongest with a solid $11 million weekend, bringing its domestic total to $125 million.  In just three weekends, it's already Tarantino's biggest domestic grosser ever.   Les Miserables is falling slightly faster than the Tarantino slave epic, but it still had a solid weekend take of $10.1 million (-37%) and a terrific $119 million domestic cume.  It's at $234 million worldwide thus far. Jack Reacher now has $72 million, after grossing $4.9 million for the weekend.  $85 million is the likely end-game here, so overseas performance will determine whether this is a new franchise for Cruise (it's at $152 million worldwide thus far).  The Guilt Trip is somewhat hanging on with $34.5 million while Flight has $92 million and Rise of the Guardians has $98 million.  Parental Guidance is showing remarkable strength as one of the only non R-rated grownup film in the marketplace outside of Lincoln and Skyfall.  The Billy Crystal/Bette Middler comedy has earned $60 million thus far.

The Life Of Pi now has $94 million, actually falling 5% despite a bounty of Oscar noms. But the Ang Lee spiritual fable is killing it overseas, and the film has already earned $400 million worldwide (that's the mighty 20th Century Fox foreign muscle for you).  The Impossible dropped just 7% for the weekend, earning $2.5 million and bringing its cume to $6.8 million. Sadly the Oscar bait that wasn't, Promised Land, plunged 68% in weekend two, giving it just $6.9 million total.  The Silver Linings Playbook jumped 38% on the heels of its surprising Oscar nomination domination, earning $5 million while still on just around 800 screens.  The rom-com now has $41 million and Weinstein Company swears it's going wide next weekend.  Argo also jumped 51% from last weekend, but that's as much to do with screen expansion and we're still only talking about $1.1 million for the weekend, giving it $111 million thus far.   Skyfall now has $299 million and should cross $300 million within the next couple days.  Lincoln went up 17% and more importantly crossed $150 million.  It's the largest grossing movie to never be #1 since Bridesmaids and makes Spielberg the only director to have a $150 million+ grossing film over the last five decades.  Amour has $652,000 and will expand further this Friday.   Wreck It Ralph has $179 million domestic and $336 million worldwide. Oh, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is heading towards $300 million with a $278 million cume after this weekend.

That's it for this weekend.  Join us next time when the Del Toro-produced Mama squares off against Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand and the Russell Crowe/Mark Wahlberg crime drama Broken City.  Until then, take care and be careful out there.  

Scott Mendelson