Weekend Estimates: The Grey Continues Bright Start to 2012

January 29, 2012

The industry will enjoy another weekend of increased revenue compared to last year, based on studio estimates released on Sunday, with The Grey starting out on the high end of expectations with $20 million, according to Open Road -- comfortably beating the $9.3 million of their previous film, The Killer Elite. In third place, One for the Money will post a surprisingly strong $11.75 million, according to Lionsgate, which will get to claim bragging rights over its new division Summit Entertainment, which is predicting $8.25 million for its new release, Man on a Ledge. The two films would most likely have ended up on different weekends if the combined studio had have had longer to rearrange their schedules.

The rest of the chart is mostly about the Oscars as several Best Picture nominees will enjoy significant upticks. The Descendants gets the biggest boost, up 176% to $6.55 million; Hugo will rise 140% or so to $2.275 million according to Paramount, and The Artist will be up about 40% to $3.315 million. Perhaps surprisingly, Hugo is the only one of the three that will have a higher Per Theater Average than last weekend, as The Descendants and The Artist both grew their box office by playing in more theaters.

Among limited releases, it looks as though anti-global warming documentary An Inconsistent Truth will top the Per Theater Chart, although, ironically, we have inconsistent reports on its box office. The report we're going with for now is just over $20,000 in a single theater (although it may have played in two venues... we should have official numbers tomorrow). Also still performing well, and helped by its Oscar nomination, is A Separation, which will average around $9,000 in 31 theaters an is closing in on $1 million in total.

- Weekend Estimates

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Hugo, One for the Money, The Descendants, Man on a Ledge, The Grey, Jodaeiye Nader az Simin, The Artist, An Inconsistent Truth