WOW. Boy oh boy was I wrong. Defying all logic and smoking all forecasts, The Devil Inside brought in over $34M this weekend at the US Box Office. In the inaugural Stare Down, we used logic, math, box office trends by genre, and third party data to forecast that The Devil Inside would crank out $15M. 2012 is picking up right where 2011 left off – all over place. Early reports do show that the vast majority of the total was generated on Friday night, so I would not expect a repeat performance in week 2. Unless the word of mouth factor kicks in and The Devil Inside does in fact become The Blair Witch Project of religious horror movies, this should experience a sizable drop week over week.
To no one’s surprise, Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol continued to print it’s own money bringing in another $20M this weekend. Even with a 33% slip week over week revenue, MI:GP shows no signs of slowing down. By this time next week, the fourth installment of the M:I franchise will be on it’s way to being the most successful of the series – M:I 2 is the current top grosser at $215M.
Next week, three big releases will hit the US box office – Joyful Noise, Contraband, and the re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D. Sherlock Holmes, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Adventures of Tintin have all enjoyed decent runs to this point, but I would think that the audience that is going to see the 2011 Holiday Movie slate has seen it already.
| Position | Last Week | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total | Week in Release |
| 1 | N/A | The Devil Inside | $34,500,000 | - | $34,500,000 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | $20,500,000 | -30.30% | $170,201,000 | 4 |
| 3 | 2 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | $14,055,000 | -32.70% | $157,415,000 | 4 |
| 4 | 4 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) | $11,300,000 | -23.80% | $76,836,000 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | $9,500,000 | -42.00% | $111,588,000 | 4 |
| 6 | 5 | War Horse | $8,603,000 | -40.40% | $56,828,000 | 3 |
| 7 | 6 | We Bought a Zoo | $8,450,000 | -36.20% | $56,544,000 | 3 |
| 8 | 7 | The Adventures of Tintin | $6,600,000 | -42.30% | $61,880,000 | 3 |
| 9 | 17 | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy | $5,767,000 | 431.30% | $10,418,000 | 5 |
| 10 | 8 | New Year’s Eve | $3,265,000 | -48.50% | $52,026,000 | 5 |
