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The rest of the top five for this weekend is comprised of a Christmas Day opener and the feel-horrible film of the holiday season. War Horse is the first of two Steven Spielberg films in the top ten this week. After debuting to $7.5 on December 25th, it has fallen to the $4 million range almost every day this week. This weekend has proven a bit more lucrative, as the title has earned $16.9 million. It has a running total of $43 million, surprising industry observers with its popularity. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo started slowly with $12.8 million last weekend, but increased 28% to $16.3 million this weekend. Its total so far of $57.1 million is probably lower than had been anticipated at this stage of its release; still, it is a far cry better than the $21.1 million the film had earned after five days.

Our sixth and seventh place movies this week are also a pair of holiday releases. We Bought a Zoo earned a modest $9.4 million in its opening weekend, but increased to $14.3 million in its second frame, a gain of 53%. The $50 million production has earned $41.8 million after ten days. The Adventures of Tintin began with a grim $2.3 million on its opening day, but sustained interest in the other Steven Spielberg holiday release has carried it to $12 million this weekend, a 24% increase from its first frame. Tintin has now earned $48 million domestically, which is good news to Paramount since they don’t get any of the international grosses – a significant number since Tintin has made roughly a quarter billion in that arena. With almost $50 million in North America, it should be pretty close to paying for itself.

The bottom portion of the top ten is rounded out with an awards contender, a lousy horror flick, and a movie whose name all but begs for box office this weekend. New Year’s Eve is in eighth place, just like last weekend, but it earned double the total of that frame. It increased from $3.3 million during Christmas weekend to $6.7 million over New Year’s. It has a running total of $46.4 million domestically against a modest $26 million production budget. Like it or not, this one’s a winner. The Darkest Hour debuted to $3 million on Christmas Day, but earned only $4.3 million over three days as it finishes in ninth place this weekend. People hate it, which means that Summit Entertainment miscalculated in paying $34.8 million on a budget for a film with current box office of $13.3 million. Finally, The Descendants continues to sell a modest number of movie tickets, as it actually increased 76% to $3.7 million this weekend. It has a domestic total so far of $39.7 million after 47 days in theaters.

Overall, the top 12 movies at the box office earned $149.6 million, a modest 1% increase from the end-of-2010 total of $148.6. Box office was up from last weekend’s $113.4 million, showing the excellent staying power this year’s titles had in the box office. Next weekend sees studios get into their typical January pattern of releasing crummy action and horror movies, with The Devil Inside being the first one to hit theaters.

Top Weekend Box Office for 12/30/11-1/1/12 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	Paramount	$30,000,000	+ 2%	$133,000,000
2	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	Warner Bros.	$22,095,000	+ 9%	$132,100,000
3	Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked	Twentieth Century Fox	$18,250,000	+ 45%	$94,609,335
4	War Horse	Walt Disney Pictures	$16,940,000	+ 125%	$42,969,000
5	The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo	SONY	$16,300,000	+ 28%	$57,100,000
6	We Bought a Zoo	Twentieth Century Fox	$14,300,000	+ 53%	$41,787,317
7	The Adventures of Tintin	Paramount	$12,000,000	+ 24%	$48,000,000
8	New Year's Eve	New Line Cinema	$6,710,000	+ 103%	$46,372,000
9	The Darkest Hour	Summit Entertainment	$4,300,000	+ 43%	$13,278,000
10	The Descendants	Fox Searchlight	$3,650,000	+ 76%	$39,674,646
11	The Muppets	Walt Disney Pictures	$2,588,000	+ 21%	$82,456,000
12	Hugo	Paramount	$2,500,000	+ 18%	$49,500,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	The Iron Lady	The Weinstein Company	$221,752	New	$221,752
	A Separation	Sony Pictures Classics	$66,598	New	$66,598
	Pariah	Focus Features	$49,695	New	$49,695
	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close	WARNER BROS.	$106,000	+ 47%	$308,000
	In the Land of Blood and Honey	FilmDistrict	$8,363	- 56%	$50,794
	Carnage	Wellspring Cinema	$105,630	+ 81%	$361,074
	Young Adult	Paramount	$2,000,000	+ 14%	$12,000,000
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Fox Searchlight	$1,160,527	+ 62%	$4,030,799
	Shame	Fox Searchlight	$196,000	+ 59%	$1,961,583
	The Artist	The Weinstein Company	$1,408,141	+59%	$5,142,000
	My Week With Marilyn	The Weinstein Company	$953,940	+ 70%	$8,964,000
	A Dangerous Method	Sony Pictures Classics	$330,466	+ 68%	$1,608,482
	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1	SUMMIT	$2,000,000	+ 36%	$275,444,901
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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