Weekend Box Office: February 3-5

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Chronicle - $22 million

2.  The Woman in Black - $20.8 million

3.  The Grey - $9.3 million

4.  Big Miracle - $7.7 million

5.  Underworld Awakening - $5.5 million

6.  One for the Money - $5.2 million

7.  Red Tails - $4.7 million

8.  The Descendants - $4.5 million

9.  Man on a Ledge - $4.3 million

10.  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - $3.8 million

The weekend box office ended up as close as Sunday night's Giants/Patriots Superbowl faceoff, but the end result (unlike the end result for the Patriots) was good news all around for both Chronicle and The Woman in Black, which completely over-performed in their debuts for a surprisingly strong Superbowl weekend box office.

Chronicle took the top spot with $22 million.  Budgeted at a reported $12 million, with a cast of unknowns (unless you count lead Dane DeHaan's uncanny resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio), the film scored another win for the found-footage genre.  You know, the one everyone keeps insisting that people are tired of.  But strong reviews, a wide appeal with younger audiences, and the fact that it's actually a pretty cool film made it a hit.

Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Harry Potter film, The Woman in Black, also opened strong with $20.8 million, the best debut yet for studio CBS Films.  The gothic horror film also enjoyed mostly decent reviews, a good turnout from the Hogwarts faithful, and like Chronicle, was quite an enjoyable film in its own right (although I'm sure it did no favors for the wind-up toy industry).

The weekend's other new release, the save-the-trapped-whales film Big Miracle, didn't quite score as well with the family crowd, earning just $7.8 million.  But these films usually have a strong shelf life with its demographic (see Dolphin Tale's $72 million), so it should hold on fairly well for the next weekends.

Last weekend's champ, The Grey, dropped 52% to earn $9.3 million.  The Liam Neeson vs. wolves survival story has earned $34 million domestically so far.  Underworld Awakening also stuck around in the top five with $5.5 million. 

Best Picture nominees The Descendants and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close found places in the top ten with $4.5 million and $3.8 million, respectively.  The Artist, which should be in the top ten because it's freaking awesome, was in 12th place with $2.6 million.

Next weekend, Lucasfilm is hoping that audiences party like it's 1999 when Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace returns to theaters in a special 3D re-release.  Families who don't want to go the Star Wars 3D route can also check out Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.  For those who want check out either of those, there's also Denzel Washington doing his badass thing in Safe House, and for the particularly desperate, the drippy-looking romance The Vow also opens in theaters next weekend.

Me? I'm seeing Star Wars.