'Contraband' bests weekend newcomers

'Contraband' Universal's launch of smuggling thriller "Contraband" easily corralled the top slot at the domestic box office with $24.1 million at 2,863 locations for its Friday-Sunday opening. The Mark Wahlberg vehicle, co-produced by Relativity and Working Title for about $25 million, should wind up the four-day holiday frame with $28.4 million. The opening of Disney's 3D post-converted "Beauty and the Beast" finished a solid second with $18.5 million at 2,625 for the three days and a projected $24.7 million for the four days with impressive returns on the Monday school holiday to observe the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King. Mouse distribution prexy Dave Hollis said the "Lion King" conversion cost the studio $8 million to $9 million, making the return of "Beauty" nicely profitable.Paramount's fifth frame of "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" narrowly won the third slot with $11.5 million at 3,346, edging out Warner Bros.' opening of gospel music comedy "Joyful Noise" at $11.3 million at 2,735. Monday biz could reverse those positions with Par-Skydance's "Ghost Protocol" on track to cume $14 million for the four days while "Noise" could take in as much as $14.5 million."Ghost Protocol" is projected to hit a domestic cume of $189.2 million by the end of Monday.Overall biz for the frame was about even to up slightly compared to the year-ago weekend, following last weekend's 28% surge in moviegoing, fueled by the stunning opening of Par Insurge's "The Devil Inside." Warner's fifth frame of "Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows" came in fifth with $8.4 million at 3,155 for Friday-Monday to edge the soph sesh of "Devil" with $7.9 million at 2,551. "Devil," made for $1 million, should take in $9 million for the four days for a heavenly $47.3 million cume in its first 11 days."Devil" declined by 77%, not a surprise after setting a record for best early January debut. A trio of holiday season entries followed with respectable holds as Sony's fourth frame of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" finished seventh, down 40% to $6.8 million at 2,674 for the three days and an $88 million domestic cume. "Girl" also took in $16.5 million at 3,920 screens overseas for a foreign cume of $49.7 million. Fox's fifth outing of "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" came in eighth, off 39% to $5.8 million at 2,849 and a domestic cume of nearly $119 million. "Chipwrecked" also pulled in $14.4 million at 6,527 in foreign markets for a $154.1 million international take.Disney/DreamWorks' fourth weekend of "War Horse" rode into ninth, down 35% to with $5.6 million at 2,856, with a four-day projection of $6.8 million for a $67 million domestic cume. Internationally, "Horse" grossed $6.8 million in a dozen markets for a $17.3 million foreign cume.The Weinstein Co.'s aggressive expansion of "The Iron Lady" took the final slot in the top 10 with $5.4 million at 802 for a cume of $6 million. Its per-screen average of $6,716 was the third best in the top 10, following $8,405 for "Contraband" and $7,044 for "Beauty and the Beast."TWC's eighth frame of "The Artist" -- one of the awards season frontrunners -- pulled in $1.2 million at 216 to lift domestic cume to $8.8 million.On the speciality front, Oscilloscope's launch of "We Need to Talk about Kevin" debuted impressively with $44,000 at two locations. The Tilda Swinton starrer now has a cume of $83,297 including its one-week Oscar-qualifying run.IFC's "Pina" continued to perform well with $108,000 at half a dozen screens for a $540,000 cume for the Wim Wenders dance pic."Sherlock Holmes" was the dominant title in overseas markets with $27.4 million from 57 markets, including a $3.4 million soph sesh in Australia and a $3.3 million Brazilian launch, to push foreign cume to $222 million. That's 13% ahead of the original -- which had a final foreign total of $315 million -- at the same point of its release.Par saw plenty of foreign pop from its holdovers -- "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" continued minting foreign coin with $16.8 million at 5,847 in 58 territories to lift the international total to $320 million while "Puss In Boots" snagged $14.6 million at 5,679 for a foreign cume of $331.7 million. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com