'Sherlock' set to solve slump
Published:Saturday | December 17, 2011 | 12:00 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP):After two sluggish weeks at the domestic box office, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is on the case and ready to solve the recent slump with an expected gross of more than US$65 million.
The Warner Bros film starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law is the follow-up to 2009's hugely successful Sherlock Holmes, which opened with US$65.4 million and went on to earn over half a billion dollars worldwide.
Chipping away at second place with around US$40 million will be the debut of Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, the third instalment of the popular family franchise that has made nearly US$800 million globally.
large format venues
IMAX will make a splash with preview showings of Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in 300 large format venues in advance of its wide release on December 21. Add to that 125 engagements in selected traditional theatres, and total preview receipts could hit US$10 million - in only 425 theatres.
The fourth-place position should belong to Warner Bros' romantic ensemble comedy New Year's Eve, with a second-weekend gross of around US$7 million to US$8 million.
Fifth-place honours are likely to go to the second weekend of Fox's R-rated comedy The Sitter, at around US$5 million to US$6 million.
Full caption
In this image released by Warner Bros Pictures, Jared Harris (left), portraying Professor James Moriarty, and Robert Downey Jr, portraying Sherlock Holmes, are shown in a scene from 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'. Moriarty, who has loomed as the grandfather of all super-villains, is played with cool, quiet, chilling detachment by Jared Harris. - Ap