Weekend Estimates: Wreck-It Ralph Beats Up the Competition

November 4, 2012

Wreck-It Ralph is breathing new life into the box office this weekend, after a few slow weeks, and with some help from an impressive opening for Flight this weekend will be a healthy 20% or so ahead of last year. Disney is projecting that Ralph will open with $49.1 million, which is a very creditable performance, if well behind the openings of The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc., both of which were released on the equivalent weekend in years gone by. The Pixar brand still counts for a lot, evidently. Flight's $25.01 million projection is well ahead of expectations (take a bow Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis), and has strong enough reviews to have good chances of legs into the Holiday Season.

This weekend's other wide opener, The Man with the Iron Fists will also post respectable numbers, with $8.2 million from 1,868 theaters projected.

Among returning films, Argo is still the standout, down just 15% this weekend, and Taken 2 also will decline by an impressively modest 22%. Both films have benefited from the East Coast returning to normal after Hurricane Sandy.

In limited release, The Sessions continues to build momentum with $455,899 projected from 69 theaters in its first nationwide expansion. A Late Quartet is the best new limited release to report so far with a projected $75,899 from 9 theaters.

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, The Man with the Iron Fists, A Late Quartet, The Sessions, Taken 2, Wreck-It Ralph, Argo, Flight, Denzel Washington, Robert Zemeckis