\'Cloud Atlas\' Disappoints on Quiet Weekend at the Box Office

Moviegoing faltered over the weekend, as viewers turned their backs on a host of new films, from the silly (the Halloween romp “Fun Size”) to the surreal (the ambitious, soul-traveling epic “Cloud Atlas”). “Argo,” a hostage-crisis drama from Warner Brothers, now in theaters for its third week, had $12.4 million in domestic tickets sales, for a total of $60.8 million; it ranked first with an audience that barely turned out. Revenue for all films was down about 10.3 percent, to about $94 million from $104.8 million, compared with the same weekend last year, according to weekly estimates from Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office reports.

“Hotel Transylvania,” from Sony Pictures Animation, was the second-ranked film, with $9.5 million in domestic sales, and a total of $130.4 million since its release a month ago.
The weekend's big loser was “Cloud Atlas,” an independently funded extravaganza that cost $100 million to produce. With three dire ctors (Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski); more than a dozen stars, led by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry; and a running time that approaches three hours, it ranked second with just $9.4 million in ticket sales for Warner. Based on a popular novel of spiritual adventure, the movie opened in 2,008 theaters, as Warner reached for a wide audience that did not connect.

“Paranormal Activity 4,” from Paramount, ranked fourth with $8.7 million in domestic sales for the weekend, and $42.6 million since opening, while “Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D,” a new, horror-themed film from Open Road, ranked fifth with an estimated $8 million in estimated sales. That tied “Taken 2,” from Fox, which also had an estimated $8 million in sales, and about $117.4 million since opening. “Chasing Mavericks,” a new, surf-themed film from Fox, had just $2.2 million in sales. “Fun Size,” from Paramount, generated just $4.1 million in sales.

Over all, the domestic box-office is up about 3.8 percent for the year, to $8.7 billion from $8.4 billion, as theater attendance rose slightly from the first ten months of 2011, a year that saw moviegoing drop to its lowest point since the mid-1990s.