We’re counting on Gaston Wahlberg to lead the way! In a weekend that saw both the Mark Wahlberg thriller Contraband and Disney’s 3-D re-release of Beauty and the Beast perform better than expected, it was the former that crossed the finish line in first place.
The R-rated Contraband, which stars Wahlberg as a former smuggler trying to protect his brother-in-law from a drug lord, earned an estimated $24.1 million over the standard three-day weekend, and looks to finish the four-day holiday weekend with about $28 million. That’s a solid start for the $25 million movie, a remake of the 2008 Icelandic thriller Reykjavík-Rotterdam. It also represents Wahlberg’s strongest solo debut since 2008′s The Happening. (What? No!)
Contraband confirmed Wahlberg’s ability to open a movie, as 69 percent of CinemaScore’s participants listed the actor as their reason for buying a ticket. It received an overall “A-” from the tracking service’s graders, indicating positive word of mouth. But the movie will have to contend with a number of action films in the coming weeks, including Haywire, Underworld: Awakening, and The Grey.
In second was Beauty and the Beast 3D with $18.5 million for the three-day frame — the largest January opening for an animated film (topping 2006′s Hoodwinked). Disney spent less than $10 million converting the 1991 classic to 3-D, so this kind of opening more than justifies the studio’s decision to re-release the musical. It also bodes well for Disney’s future 3-D re-releases: Finding Nemo in September, and Monsters, Inc. and The Little Mermaid in 2013. Beast should finish the four-day weekend with around $25 million.
Source: EW
