‘Wreck-it Ralph’ smashes through Disney Animation records

Superstorm Sandy did have an impact at the box office, but
as hoped, it turned out to mostly be a good one. Wreck-It Ralph did
especially well on the East Coast on Friday, as cooped-up families gladly
embraced the distraction. The animated feature earned $49.1 million over the weekend,
Disney Animation’s biggest
non-holiday weekend opening. Viewers, who skewed young and slightly male,
gave the video game-themed movie an “A” rating. With two more competition-free
weekends before Rise of the Guardians
begins its pre-Thanksgiving run, Wreck-It
Ralph will be able to grab the lion’s share of the family audience.

The Denzel Washington-led Flight took off with $25 million, while only releasing on
1,900 screens. The story of a pilot who is also an alcoholic is something of a
departure from Washington’s
usual casting in lighter action-thrillers, but
audiences responded, giving the movie an “A” CinemaScore rating and Washington
his fifth-highest opening ever.

Argo had yet another strong weekend, dipping just 15% to $10.2 million. That’s the fourth
weekend in a row that drama finished above $10 million, which is especially
noteworthy given that it opened at just under $20 million. The word-of-mouth hit
will likely play strongly through Thanksgiving.

In fourth place, The Man with the Iron Fists opened
to $8.2 million, in line with
expectations. The predominantly male, under-30 audience did not like the
over-the-top martial arts movie, giving it just a “C+” rating. This is one that
will likely die pretty fast, though luckily the feature only cost around $15
million.

A Late Quartet debuted on nine screens with an $8,400 per-screen average. The
Manhattan-set story of a string quartet likely suffered because theatres in
Lower Manhattan were closed for part of the weekend. The found-footage epidemic
movieThe
Bay flopped, averaging just $930
per screen in 23 location. The Details also disappointed. The
black comedy earned only $1,400 per screen in fourteen locations.

In contrast, the third week of The Sessions did better
than any of the new specialty releases. The John Hawkes/Helen Hunt movie went
up 110% as it added 49 locations for a total of 69. With a per-screen average of $6,600, it racked up nearly a half-million dollars. Searching
for Sugar Man continued to enjoy an uptick after the documentary was
featured on “60 Minutes.” The fifteen-week-old movie rose 18% to add another
$163,000 to its $2.4 million total.

This Friday, James Bond returns in Skyfall, which has already proved a smashing success overseas. Also
in the mix is Lincoln, the Steven
Spielberg-directed biopic that will begin its run in a handful of theatres.