Box Office Report: Wreck-It Ralph Shatters Disney Record, Flight Soars

WINNER OF THE WEEK:John C. Reilly. The veteran character actor and Will Ferrell sidekick (Talladega Nights,Step Brothers) has never enjoyed an opening as big as the enormous $49.1 million estimated haul ofWreck-It Ralph. The cartoons debut not only topped the weekend chart but also smashed the opening-weekend record for a non-Pixar, in-house-made Disney cartoon. It helped that the movie had a solid script with appeal beyond the family audience (surely a lot of Gen-Xers went to see it just for its evocation of 1980s videogames), and it also helped that Sandy-strewn audiences were ready for some gentle escapism. Still, Reilly deserves some credit, too, and lets hope he gets it, even though no one can see his face.

Also excelling, as usual, was Denzel Washington, whoseFlightdebuted in second place with a strong $25.0 million, according to studio estimates. Thats very good for a movie that opened on fewer than 2,000 screens. Indeed, its hefty per-screen average of $13,275 was slightly higher than that ofWreck-It Ralph($13,086), which was playing in more than twice as many venues.

Rounding out the top five: Last weeks champ,Argo, fell to third place with an estimated $10.2 million, down just 15 percent from a week ago. Ben Afflecks movie has held up very well, with a four-weekend total of $75.9 million. Opening in fourth place was RZAs kung-fu movieThe Man With the Iron Fists, which did about as well as expected (debuting with an estimated $8.2 million), followed byTaken 2, with an estimated $6.0 million and a five-week total of $125.7 million.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Alicia Silverstone.Vampshad been gathering buzz for a year as a possible comeback for both theCluelessstar and her director, Amy Heckerling. The idea was promising: a vampire-themed romantic comedy, with rising ABC sitcom siren Krysten Ritter (Dont Trust the B- in Apartment 23) as a co-star. But the film limped out, post-Halloween, on just one screen and grossed an estimated $500. Which means about four people per screening. Now,thatsscary.

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?Its sad enough to see Silverstone and Heckerling fail even in the bargain bin. But whats former A-Lister Barry Levinson doing there? The Oscar-winning director ofRain Manshowed up this week on just 23 screens with a found-footage horror tale calledThe Bay; is that really the best feature work he can find these days? And what of Sean Penn playing a retired goth rocker on a mission of vengeance in the barely releasedThis Must Be The Place(two screens)? Sure, Penns just slumming (hell be back chewing more expensive Hollywood scenery inGangster Squadin a couple months), but otherwise, the art-house is looking like the missing persons Twilight Zone of the multiplex.