Updated 10:05 a.m. PT Saturday
Universal's "Contraband" and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" overperformed in their opening day, grossing $8.7 million and $5.7 million. That puts "Contraband" on track to take nearly $30 million over the four-day holiday weekend.
"Beauty and the Beast" is on track to take $26 million over four days.
The other new release of the weekend, Alcon's "Joyful Noise," grossed $3.3 million on Friday and is looking to take about $11 million over three days and $14 million over four -- in line with projections.
But last week's box office winner, Paramount Insurge's R-rated "The Devil Inside," saw a monumental 84 percent drop -- from $16.8 million on Dec. 6 to about $2.7 million on Friday the 13th.
Although that's not a record fall -- "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," for example, fell 87 percent from its opening Wednesday to the next Wednesday in 2010, but saw strong numbers in its second weekend in release -- it is fairly certain that "Devil" has lost its roar.
While "Devil" limps along, "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" is still running strong. Paramount's PG-13 action movie, now in its fifth weekend of release, took $3.2 million on Friday. By some rival studio projections, the movie could take $11.3 million over three days and $13.8 million over four -- beating "Joyful Noise" for the No. 3 spot at the box office.
Earlier:
The last time Disney raided its animation library and converted an old movie into 3D, it stunned the industry: the 17-year-old “The Lion King” opened to a startling $30 million in September.
Now, the studio is hoping to pull off a similar feat.
On Friday, Disney breaks out a $10 million 3D-conversion of its 20-year-old “Beauty and the Beast,” with high hopes that it will be a box office beast.
The studio has a lot at stake. It wants to re-release “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “The Little Mermaid” in 3D, and the performance of “Beauty and the Beast” could help gauge the wisdom of that idea.
Other studios are watching, too. Fox and Paramount are re-releasing a 3D version of James Cameron’s “Titanic” on April 6 and Fox is releasing a 3D version of “Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace” on Feb. 10.
Such re-releases “are new opportunities – found money, if you will," Dave Hollis, Disney’s head of distribution, told TheWrap.
But with Universal’s “Contraband” on track to be the No. 1 picture at the box office this weekend, Disney is tamping down expectations for its G-rated movie.
The studio will be happy with $15 million over the four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Tracking has it taking just short of that.
Also read: Review: 'Contraband' Operates by the Numbers, Loses Count
Also opening this weekend is Alcon’s “Joyful Noise,” which is expected to perform well behind both “Contraband” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
