Friday Box Office | featured news

The doldrums that kicked in a year ago at the domestic box office continued Friday as Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked faced a soft marketplace, further worrying Hollywood.

New Line and Warner Bros.' s New Year's Eve is on course to gross $6 million to $7 million in its first day of play at the domestic box office, putting it at No. 1. Director Garry Marshall's $56 million star-studded ensemble pic is expected to open in the $20 million range for the weekend, in line with pre-release tracking. While that's far less than the $72 million bow of Marshall's Valentine's Day over the four-day Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend in 2010, Warner Bros. expects the film to have an especially strong multiple and play through New Year's Day since it's the only holiday romantic comedy.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the slowest of the year, and 2011 is no different. With no new wide releases, Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 continued to top the domestic box office, grossing $5.5 million on Friday for a cume of $235.9 million. The pic is on track for a $16.8 million weekend.

In a notable victory for Disney, The Muppets continues to rule over other family films at the Thanksgiving box office, grossing $12.3 million on Friday for a three-day cume of $24.8 million. The pic, which cost a modest $45 million to produce, is now projected to post a Wednesday-Sunday debut of at least $40 million, putting it behind only The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1, which grossed $16.9 million on Friday for a cume of roughly $195 million (the pic will jump the $200 million mark sometime on Saturday).

Relativity Media's R-rated action-epic Immortals, headlining Henry Cavill, topped the Friday box office with a better-than-expected $15 million for a projected weekend opening of $35 million.

On Friday, Brett Ratner's Tower Heist -- with a cast led by Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Matthew Broderick -- took in an estimated $8.1 million. However, Puss in Boots wasn't far behind with $7.8 million -- a narrow 18 percent drop from the previous Friday.

The Halloween threequel is pacing well ahead of the previous two pics; Paul W.S. Anderson's "The Three Musketeers" and the Rowan Atkinson action-comedy "Johnny English Reborn" don't find much love in the U.S. Far exceeding expectations, Paranormal Activity 3 grossed a massive $26.2 million on Friday, putting it on course to earn as much as $50 million for the weekend and score the best opening in nearly four months at the domestic box office on the strength of both younger and older moviegoers.

Paramount’s remake tops Friday with $5.6 million; horror prequel “The Thing” off to so-so start with $3.2 mil, while the Steve Martin-Jack Black-Owen Wilson comedy “The Big Year” only grosses $1.2 mil.

FRIDAY 10:30 PM UPDATE: Here are the Top 10 movies at the North American box office tonight. Analysis coming: 1) Real Steel (DreamWorks/Disney) NEW [3,440 Theaters] Friday $8.7M, Estimated Weekend $27M; 2) The Ides Of March (Smokehouse/Sony) NEW [2,199 Theaters] Friday $3.7M, Estimated Weekend $11M; 3) Dolphin Tale (Alcon/Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,478 Theaters] Friday $2.4M, Estimated Weekend $8.5M, Estimated Cume $48.4M

Sony’s Brad Pitt baseball drama Moneyball topped the Friday box office with an estimated $6.8 million, putting it on course to score the best opening ever for a baseball drama with a projected weekend take of $20 million and solidifying the film’s awards standing. Taylor Lautner's Abduction, meanwhile, landed at No. 4. Moneyball's Friday standing doesn't mean it will necessarily come in at No. 1 -- the weekend is proving to be one of the difficult to call in months.