There are three new films opening in wide release this weekend: Liam Neeson battles the elements in The Grey from Open Road Films, Katherine Heigl turns bounty hunter in romantic comedy One for the Money from Lionsgate and Sam Worthington stars in thriller Man on a Ledge from Summit Entertainment.  Based on my estimates, the Top 10 will generate about $82.3 million over the weekend, down about 5.8% from last year when both The Rite from Warner Bros. and Paramount’s No Strings Attached led the overall Top 10 to a total of $87.4 million. 

There are four new films opening in wide release this weekend: Sony unleashes the fourth chapter in its supernatural saga Underworld: Awakening, 20^th Century Fox’s war drama Red Tails about the Tuskegee Airmen flies into theatres, Relativity Media releases this year’s female spy revenge flick Haywire and after a limited debut in only 6 theatres, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close from both Paramount and Warner Bros. expands nationwide. Based on my estimates, the Top 10 will generate about $102.3 million over the weekend, up about 18.4% from last year when both Paramount’s No Strings Attached and The Green Hornet from Sony led the overall Top 10 to a total of $83.5 million. 

There are three new films opening in wide release this weekend: Disney unleashes another one of their old films from the vault with the 3D re-release of animated classic Beauty and the Beast, Mark Wahlberg is back in action star mode in Universal’s Contraband and Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton star in musical comedy Joyful Noise from Warner Bros. No new fright flicks are being released this weekend, despite this Friday being the 13^th, leaving The Devil Inside the market all to itself on the spooky calendar day. Nonetheless, the found footage exorcism film should be in for a steep drop this weekend due to the poor word of mouth the film has been receiving. Based on my estimates, the Top 10 will generate about $102.3 million over the weekend, down about 5.1% from last year when both The Green Hornet from Sony and The Dilemma from Universal led the overall Top 10 to a total of $107.8 million. 

There is only one film opening in wide release this weekend: Paramount releases this year’s obligatory exorcism film, The Devil Inside, yet another lost footage horror film that claims to be real.   It is an inauspicious start to the New Year that will allow holdover films from the holiday’s the opportunity to pick up some lost ticket sales due to all the competition at the end of the year. That being said, there are many high profile films being released this year that will likely make 2012 a banner year at the box office. Based on my estimates, the Top 10 will generate about $92.6 million over the weekend, up about 3.6% from last year when both True Grit from Paramount and Little Fockers from Universal led the overall Top 10 to a total of $89.3 million.