New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Third spot goes to Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. The Robert Downey Jr. sequel has a similar weekend to Ghost Protocol, as it dips, but not at an alarming rate. Sherlock earned $14 million in its fourth weekend, and drops a reasonable 33%. While it didn't get off to the start the original Sherlock Holmes had, the sequel has actually shown better legs. By the original's fourth weekend, it was earning approximately $10 million, about $4 million less than where the sequel is. The overall total still favors the original, but the gap is beginning to close. The first film finished with $209 million on the domestic front, while I see this one closing shop with about $190 million. Overseas, business seems slower for the sequel, as it has only recently crossed the $120 million mark, whereas the original earned $315 million. The budget for the sequel was $125 million, $35 million higher than the original. So far, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has earned $157.4 million domestically.

Fourth is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the supposedly huge film that failed to really connect with audiences. Dragon Tattoo earned $11.4 million this weekend, and dropped a very small 23% - the best hold in the top 12. Surprisingly, this weekend's take is only about a million dollars away from the opening Christmas Day weekend, when it took in $12.8 million. The $90 million film has to be very thankful for the holiday season, as this one won't earn more than $20 million over a weekend, but has a gross so far of $76.8 million against that $90 million budget. The story isn't over for this one yet.

Fifth is Alvin and the Chipmunks, a franchise parents are obviously tired of. Last weekend, Alvin and company earned a strong $16.4 million. This weekend, the torture porn earned only $9.5 million, giving it a drop of 42% (yay!). I took a number of weekends off from this column to avoid this title, and am happy to see it in fifth (and dropping) this weekend. The $75 million sequel has now earned $111.6 million domestically, and has $80 million in overseas business.

War Horse finishes in sixth place, as it just doesn't quite have the hold it needs to get ahead of Alvin and the Chipmunks. The Steven Spielberg flick has its second consecutive weekend where the gross is higher than the opening ($7.5 million), as it earned $14.4 million last weekend, and $8.6 million this weekend. Note, however, that the $7.5 million opening weekend number is a little misleading since the film only had one day of box office - Christmas - to get it. War Horse sees a drop of 40%, but it will beat its budget of about $65 million. So far, War Horse has earned $56.8 million.

The Cameron Crowe head-scratcher We Bought A Zoo is seventh, and I'm left wondering why the director of Almost Famous made a film whose description has words like "misadventures" and "family-film" in it. Regardless, this Matt Damon effort has been soft, but thankfully for Fox has been propelled by the Christmas season. This weekend, its third, We Bought A Zoo earned $8.4 million and dropped 36% from its $13.2 million gross last weekend. This one cost Fox $50 million, and will be a good bet, as it has already earned $56.5 million.

Continued:       1       2       3