Weekend Box Office: “Argo” bests all openers in down frame

Ben Affleck's "Argo" topped the box office in its third weekend of release, beating all new competitors.In its third weekend of release, Ben Affleck’s period crowd-pleaser “Argo” showed no signs of slowing down at the box office, dropping just 24.9 percent from last weekend for another $12.4m. Even more impressively, “Argo” beat all four new wide releases by  a sizable margin. While the impending Hurricane Sandy undoubtedly had a negative effect on the box office as a whole, the openers’ grosses were so bad that the rough weather along the Eastern Seaborg is hardly an excuse. The Wachowskis’ passion project, “Cloud Atlas,” co-directed by Tom Tykwer, fared the best with $9.4m — by no means a great start for a $100m-budgeted movie, but an expected one given that international markets were always the focus. “Silent Hill: Revelation” was next, with $8m — a far cry from the $20.2m opening of its predecessor. But the film seems like a runaway hit compared to Nickelodeon’s “Fun Size” and the surfer pic “Chasing Mavericks,” which each tanked with $4.1m and $2.2m, respectively. Both will have a time cracking $10m in their entire box office runs.

Check out the full top 10 chart below:

No. Title Weekend Per Theater Average Total
1 “Argo” $12.4M $4,327 $60.8M
2 “Hotel Transylvania” $9.5M $2,900 $130.4M
3 “Cloud Atlas” $9.4M $4,681 $9.4M
4 “Paranormal Activity 4” $8.7M $2,542 $42.6M
5 “Taken 2” $8.0M $2,671 $117.4M
6 “Silent Hill: Revelation” $8.0M $2,728 $8.0M
7 “Here Comes the Boom” $5.5M $2,208 $30.6M
8 “Sinister” $5.1M $2,160 $39.5M
9 “Alex Cross” $5.1M $1,987 $19.4M
10 “Fun Size” $4.1M $1,347 $4.1M

Source: Box Office Mojo