Box Office: Argo leads abysmal weekend

It’s not everyday day a movie in its third weekend reaches the #1 spot for the first time. That was the case with Argo, Ben Affleck’s critically lauded thriller which so happens to have really strong box office legs. You wouldn’t guess we had 4 movies opening wide over the weekend.

With $12 million in its 3rd weekend, Argo took the lead at the box office in North America without any sort of opposition. So far after 17 days the flick has $60.5 and I think it will definitely finish above $90 million. There might even be a slim chance at $100 million, depending on how well it will continue to perform next weekend, when the real big hitters come out to play.

The Wachowski’s return to the big screen, Cloud Atlas, gathered a decent yet unimpressive $9.6 million on its opening weekend. For the siblings (helped here by Tom Tykwer) Cloud Atlas is by far their worst wide debut, trailing 2008′s Speed Racer ($18.5 million) and 1999′s The Matrix ($27.7 million). But since this is probably one of, if not their least commercial endeavor yet, $9.6 million doesn’t look as bad. After all, I seriously doubt they made this epic 2 hour and 44 minute motion picture for the money.

Hotel Transylvania went up to 3rd place this week with $9.4 million for a total of $130.3 million after only a month in theaters. Since it just passed Cloudy With a Chance at Meatballs ($124.8 million), Hotel Transylvania is now the #1 fully animated (no live-action scenes) film from Sony Pictures Animation. Soon enough it should also pass The Smurfs ($142.6 million). Is that Hotel Transylvania 2 I see on the horizon? It sure looks like it.

Paranormal Activity 4 took a massive yet expected nosedive to $8.5 million all the way down to 4th place. With $42.6 million in 10 days, this now trails the last two films by a wide margin.

Rounding out the top 5 we have Silent Hill: Revelation 3D and it seems this ain’t no Resident Evil at the box office. With a modest $8 million debut, it came way behind the $20.1 million of the 2006 original. Made for just $20 million, this won’t have any trouble making back its money worldwide thanks in part to the overpriced illusion of 3D.

Another wide opener this past weekend was Halloween themed comedy Fun Size with an abysmal $4.1 million opening in 10th place. Even worse was Chasing Mavericks in 13th place with $2.2 million.