Weekend Box-Office: December 30, 2011-January 1, 2012

Mission still being accepted

The New Year’s holiday didn’t take quite as big a chomp as the Christmas weekend did on the box office, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL once again reigned supreme at theaters with another $31.2M (over last weekend’s $29.5M 3-day take). The high-speed, building-crawling action flick has brought in $134M so far — already more than M:I3’s domestic total — plus another $190M overseas. Seems like Tom is back on top. Maybe by the time his next impossible mission unfolds, we’ll have a lot more IMAX theaters to see it…

No big shakeups on the rest of the chart, and thing fell in fairly close to what I expected (for once). SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS once again placed second with $22M — also more than last week, but at this rate it’s improbable that it will hit the first SHERLOCK’s domestic total of $209M. ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED wasn’t far away with $18.2M, up quite a bit from last weekend’s $12.5 three-day haul and creeping up on the $100 million mark, but still nowhere close to the other two in the ALVIN series, which each took over $200 million.

Steven Spielberg’s WAR HORSE is proving to be a strong stallion, galloping into fourth with $16.9M and a $42.9 total since it opened last Sunday. That’s a much better showing than his other movie in current release, THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN down in seventh with $12M. But while it’s struggled in the US, the CG movie is an international smash with $240M, so maybe those intended sequels will happen someday after all.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO landed in fifth with $16.3M, and so far David Fincher’s adaptation isn’t shaping up to be either an awards darling or a counterprogramming breakout. It will be interesting to see if there’s some studio blame-throwing (too long, too hyped, too bleak for the season, etc.), especially if it never hits $100M.

WE BOUGHT A ZOO is still doing steady family business on the lower half of the list, but the mediocre performance of NEW YEAR’S EVE should put a stop to holiday-themed romcoms. For a while, at least. Outside the chart, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is catching the biggest biz of the limited releases, although THE ARTIST and A DANGEROUS METHOD are still doing well and new qualifying runs for THE IRON LADY, A SEPARATION and PARIAH got some notice.

Next weekend only offers one new release as the INXS-less THE DEVIL INSIDE opens (apparently every January now requires at least one demonic possession movie), which should give the current movies one more good week to battle it out. What January release are you looking forward to? VOTE HERE!