Sequels falter during disappointing holiday weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Although the December box office picked up this weekend, it wasn't nearly as good as last year, with totals 14% behind 2010. Competition has been blamed for hurting individual films, but that doesn't explain why the box office as a whole is down.

Easily landing in first place with$40 million,Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadowsfell short of the $50 million figure many had predicted for the detective actioner. The first Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. earned $62 million. However, audiences gave high ratings in exit polls, and there's still plenty of time in December for the tentpole to approach its $200+ million domestic total.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, the third installment in the live-action/CG hybrid franchise, finished with a slightly underwhelming$23.5 million. The 2009 sequel opened to $48 million over Christmas weekend, but it appears audiences may have tired slightly of the antics of the chipmunks and chipettes. Hugo, The Muppets, and Arthur Christmas are all competing against Chipwrecked, and this Wednesday The Adventures of Tintin will join the competition for family audiences.

Mission: Impossibe--Ghost Protocol sneaked into just over 500 theatres this weekend, most of which were IMAX. Posting a stunning $30,500 per-screen average for a total of $13 million, Paramount hopes the early release unleashed a torrent of buzz from the franchise's committed fanboys.

Specialty release Carnage failed to generate the kind of opening per-screen average that will make the play adapation a mover-and-shaker. With a $17,000 per-screen average in five locations, the Roman Polanski-directed film is definitely one of the weaker specialty releases this season. The Artist posted a per-screen average nearly as high--$16,900 per screen--in seventeen locations its fourth week of release. Carnage can't compete with that.

Young Adult expanded into nearly 1,000 screens its second week, landing a spot in the top ten with a $3.6 million total. That's good news, but it also shows it's not as strong asThe Descendants, which was able to earn twice as much on one-third the screens when it made its first expansion (admittedly over the Thanksgiving weekend). The Hawaii-set dramedy starring George Clooney added another $3.3 million to its coffers this week while still playing in only 878 theatres.

Showing stamina in its second week,Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spywent up 48% as it expanded from 4 to 16 theatres. Its $28,000 per-screen average made for a total of $452,000, a good sign for the spy film, which is rated 84% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

This Wednesday, The Adventures of Tintin and The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo will open, followed by a wide release of We Bought a Zooon Friday. War Horse, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and The Darkest Hour will follow on Sunday, Christmas Day.

Three sequels face off: 'Chipwrecked,' 'Game of Shadows,' and 'Ghost Protocol'

By Sarah Sluis

Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and the Chipettes return for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (3,723 theatres), one of three sequels hitting theatres today. Though the CG-animated feature is expected to earn north of $25 million this weekend, it isn't because of quality. "C'mon, you can do better," Frank Lovece admonishes in his review. He acknowledges there's "no incentive" for the filmmakers to try, as evidenced by their sloppy work "that shows no feeling for the material, no affection for the characters, and no concern for any long-term legacy." Just call Alvin and the Chipmunks the anti-Pixar movie.

The leader this weekend is expected to be Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (3,703 theatres), which should rack up $50 million. The "bigger, louder, more expensive sequel...stays true to the Holmes canon" and won over critic
Daniel Eagan. Since the first installment earned over $500 million, hopes are high for the "hyperkinetic sequel."

Withholding its wide 3,000-screen release until next Wednesday, Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol will open in a select 425 theatres, all of which will project in IMAX or another large-screen experience. Viewers won't be disappointed, according to Eagan. The actioner offers "cutting-edge escapism that's almost guilt-free." Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt goes traipsing around the globe, including a memorable sequence in Dubai. Even with so few screens, the sequel should earn around $15 million, and I'm sure the combination of packed theatres and a big-screen experience will ensure positive word-of-mouth.

Despite having the actors "lustily go at it," Carnage (5 theatres) works from a script that sounds like "an ultra-slick TV-sitcom episode gone horribly wrong and combative," according to David Noh. In my opinion, the play adaptation still feels very stagey, one of my pet peeves. That kind of artifice doesn't fly on the silver screen. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster both received acting nominations for the Golden Globes, but Noh's opinion must have been echoed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which failed to nominate the film for anything else.

On Monday, we'll see if these three sequels were able to spike the December box office as people move from shopping for the holidays to celebrating the holidays.