It's uncertain how much Hurricane Sandy preparation up much of the east coast affected the box office–AMC began closing many theaters in NJ, NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, and the D.C./Baltimore area–but it was an extremely slow weekend at theaters.
Despite four new releases, no new film managed to gross $10 million. The highest-grossing film for the weekend earned slightly more than $12 million.
Gerard Butler's surfing film "Chasing Mavericks" failed to make a splash earning $2.2 million. The Fox film cost an estimated $20 million to produce.
Meanwhile, the next Bond film, "Skyfall" is tracking well two weeks ahead of its U.S. release. Overseas, it has earned $77 million opening weekend.
Out of the top ten this week are "Looper" after five weeks, Disney's "Frankenweenie," and "Pitch Perfect."
Here are this week's winners and losers:
10. Nickelodeon's try at a grown-up tween film "Fun Size" just managed to make it into the top ten earning $4 million.
9. Summit's "Alex Cross" drops sharply in week two earning $5 million. To date, the film has earned $19.3 million of its $35 million budget.
8. Meanwhile, Summit's horror flick "Sinister" narrowly beats "Cross" with $5.07 million. In three weeks, the movie has managed to pull in more than $39.5 million on a $3 million budget.
7. Kevin James' "Here Comes the Boom" stays in the same place at $5.5 million this weekend.
5. Horror flick "Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" ties with "Taken 2" in its opening weekend grossing $8 million of its estimated $20 million.
5. "Taken 2" manages to only fall three spots also earning $8 million. Worldwide, Liam Neeson's action thriller has "taken" more than $315 million.
4. "Paranormal Activity 4" falls from the top spot this week. The fourth film in the franchise dropped 70.1 percent earning $8.6 million this weekend.
3. Halle Berry and Tom Hanks' "Cloud Atlas" debuted to a week $9.4 million.
2. Adam Sandler's "Hotel Transylvania" is still surging at theaters thanks to a 262 theater bump. The film earned $9.5 million in week five to bring its U.S. total to $130.4 million.
1. It's been a long time coming, but Ben Affleck's "Argo" finally earns the top spot with $12.3 million. In three weeks, the film has grossed $60.7 million, surpassing its estimated $44.5 million budget.
