Normally, if a movie has any hope of securing the top slot at the box office on a given weekend, it happens the first week that film is released. Every now and then, however, a big-screen story comes along and bucks that trend—which is exactly what happened over the weekend.
Argo, which currently sits at an envious 96% approval rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, is translating that nearly universal critical acclaim into staying power at the box office. In its third weekend, the movie starring and directed by Ben Affleck dropped just 25% to an estimated $12.4 million, nabbing the No. 1 spot. That was easily enough to fend off another holdover, Hotel Transylvania, which clocked in at No. 2 with a pre-Halloween haul of $9.5 million, bumping its cumulative North American gross up to a solid $130.4 million at the beginning of its fifth week of release.
But the biggest story—or perhaps I should say biggest non-story—of the weekend was the tepid performance of newcomer Cloud Atlas. This ambitious effort from the creators of The Matrix has been described as the most expensive independent film ever made, with an estimated price tag of $100 million. But the nearly three-hour story spanning five centuries and six separate-but-reincarnation-linked stories will likely join the ignominious company of John Carter and Battleship on 2012’s ever-growing list of big-budget flops after pulling in just $9.4 million in its debut.
Even Tom Hanks and Halle Berry couldn’t save this high-concept saga, it seems. For Hanks, Cloud Atlas’ weak debut marks his lowest-grossing bow since That Thing You Do! pulled in just $6.2 million in its 1996 opening weekend.
Silent Hill: Revelation was the only other newbie to crack the Top 10 over the weekend, coming in at No. 5 with estimated ticket sales of $8.5 million. Meanwhile, The other two debuts, Fun Size and Chasing Mavericks, landed at Nos. 11 and 12, respectively.
In the case of Fun Size, which grossed just $4.1 million, that might not be such a terrible thing. Plugged In reviewer Bob Hoose described the movie as “something of a Superbad for the young Nickelodeon set.” With Chasing Mavericks, on the other hand, an even lower take of just $2.2 million is a disappointment. While not without some concerns (mostly in the form of potentially glorifying some risky choices), the generally positive surfing-oriented film from Walden Media and 20th Century Fox dials down the content even as it amps up positive and inspirational themes when it comes to chasing your dreams and the importance of family.
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