"The Grey" -- Open Road Films' second release ever -- took a surprising $20 million at the domestic box office this weekend, making it the top movie in the country.
While Open Road targeted men in its R-rated action drama about an oil drilling team that is pursued by a pack of wolves after an airplane crash in Alaska, Lionsgate went after a different audience with its PG-13 comedy "One for the Money."
The strategy worked: "One for the Money," based on the Janet Evanovich novel, debuted to $11.75 -- exceeding projections by almost $2 million. The $11.75 million made it the No. 3 movie in America -- just behind Sony's "Underworld: Awakening."
While "The Grey" and "One for the Money" debuted to better-than-expected numbers, the 11-week-old "The Descendants" enjoyed a significant bump after going wide for the first time, and grossed $6.6 million. Fox Searchlight expanded the number of locations showing the movie by 1,441 -- to 2,001.
In limited release, Roadside Attractions' Academy Award-nominated "Albert Nobbs" arrived at 245 locations and grossed $772,730.
Meanwhile, Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" became the highest-grossing film of that franchise. In its seventh week, the movie crossed the $200 million mark domestically and hit $571 million worldwide. The 2000 "Mission: Impossible II" had been the top-earner in the franchise, with $546 million.
Also read: Review: 'The Grey' More Than Just 'Taken' With Wolves
Overall, this has been a good weekend at the box office. Compared to the same weekend last year, the box office was up about 14 percent.
That has been the case each week this month. More encouraging for the industry, each No. 1 movie of this month -- "The Devil Inside," "Contraband," "Underworld: Awakening" and now "The Grey" -- has exceeded projections.
Of the three movies that opened in wide release this weekend, "The Grey" was the sole R-rated movie. It drew more men than women -- about 54 percent of its audience was made up of men. And it had a slightly older crowd -- just more than half the audience was made up of people 25 and older.
"We're thrilled," Open Road's CEO, Tom Ortenberg, told TheWrap Sunday morning. "We were able to pull off this kind of result with only our second release, and getting outspent by the competition, as we always will."
He noted that star Liam Neeson's last two films have been rated PG-13 -- "so we know the 'R' rating precludes a few people who want to go."
Joe Carnahan directed the movie, which received an unimpressive "B-" ranking from the audience survey firm Cinemascore.
Open Road Films, financed by AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment Group, acquired "The Grey" while the movie was in postproduction. While the movie had a budget estimated at around $25 million, the company is believed to have acquired it for around $5 million.
