“The Devil Inside” movie topped the box office this weekend by earning a record breaking $34.5 million. The small budget horror film scored the biggest opening of all time for early January, and the third largest of all time for the month following fellow Paramount release “Cloverfield” ($40.1 million) and George Lucas’ 1997 reissue of “Star Wars” ($35.9 million). “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” maintained the strongest hold of any wide release.
“The Devil Inside” received polarizing reviews on CinemaScore on Friday night. Almost as many gave it an A (16 percent) as did an F (19 percent). The majority ( 47 percent) gave it a C and a D which is not uncommon for horror titles.
It’s reported that The Devil Inside’s successful weekend is a result of the strong turnout from the usually large absence of younger moviegoers. Nearly 60 percent of Friday night’s audience were under the age of 25, while 85 percent of the audience were under the age of 34. Males made up 54 percent of those buying tickets.
Overall, “The Devil Inside” helped to boost theatrical revenues by more than 25 percent over last year — not bad for a film Paramount acquired for only $1 million dollars.
This weekend’s box office report is below:
Domestic Box Office Jan. 6-Jan. 8
Title/Weeks in Release/Studio/Theater Count/Three Day Weekend Total/Cume
1. The Devil Inside (1) Paramount/2,205, $34.5 million
2. Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol (4), Paramount/3,555, $20.5 million, $170.2 million
3. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (4), Warner Bros./3,603, $14.1 million, $157.4 million
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (3), Sony/2950, $11.4 million, $76.8 million
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (4), 20th Century Fox/3,425, $9.5 million, $111.6 million
6. War Horse (3), DreamWorks/Disney/2,783, $8.6 million, $56.8 million
7. We Bought a Zoo (3), Fox/3,170, $8.5million, $56.4 million
8. The Adventures of Tintin (3), Paramount, Sony/3,006, $6.6 million, $61.9 million
9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (5), Focus Features/809, $5.8 million, $10.4 million
10. New Year’s Eve (5), Warner Bros./New Line/1,864, $3.3 million, $52 million
