MOVIES HOLD THEIR OWN ON SUPER BOWL WEEKEND

The Super Bowl may have kept most Americans tethered to their TV sets on Sunday, but that did not prevent two relatively low-budget movies from earning more than $20 million — the first time ever that has happened on a Super Bowl weekend, according to researchers Box Office Mojo. The sci-fi film Chronicle topped the list with $22 million, while the Daniel Radcliffe-starring horror flick The Woman in Black was close behind with $20.9 million. Nevertheless, the game certainly affected both films’ earnings (as it no doubt affected every other movie in domestic theaters). Chronicle on Friday raked in $8.60 million and on Saturday $10.15 million, but on Sunday just $3.26 million. Likewise, Woman in Black brought in $8.33 million on Friday and $9.61 million on Saturday, but just $2.93 million on Sunday. Still, the results for the ghost film amounted to particularly good news for the struggling CBS Films, which hasn’t produced anything close to a hit since it returned from the dead in 2007. The only other film to open wide over the weekend was the family film Big Miracle, which was anything but. The movie earned just $7.76 million over the three days — around the low end of expectations. In releasing estimates on Sunday, Universal had figured that since the movie attracted mostly moms and small kids, it would not be as hard-hit by the Super Bowl as most other films would be. Unfortunately, most moms stayed home with their kids, too, and the final tally for the film came in nearly 10 percent lower than Universal’s estimate.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Chronicle, Fox, $22,004,098, (New ); 2, The Woman in Black, CBS Films, $20,874,072, (New)); 3, The Grey, Open Road, $9,300,999, 2 Wks. ($9,300,999); 4, Big Miracle, Universal, $7,760,205, (New); 5, Underworld Awakening, Sony/Screen Gems, $5,500,744, 3 Wks. ($54,253,665); 6, One For the Money, Lionsgate, $5,206,279, 2 Wks. ($19,624,266); 7, Red Tails, Fox, $4,735,595, 3 Wks. ($41,059,053); 8, The Descendants, Fox Searchlight, $4,552,943, 12 Wks. ($65,475,595); 9, Man on a Ledge, Summit, $4,351,036, 2 Wks. ($14,615,810); 10, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Warner Bros., $3,802,367, 7 Wks. ($26,670,043).