Disney (DIS +0.77%) topped the weekend box office in style, enjoying the best opening weekend its subsidiary Walt Disney Animation Studios has ever posted. The studio's new release, Wreck-It Ralph, took in more than $49 million in the Friday-Sunday period, according to data compiled by Box Office Mojo.
No. 2 belonged to another fresh release, the drama Flight, starring Denzel Washington. That film, distributed by Viacom's (NASDAQ: VIA) Paramount, earned a gross of just under $25 million over the weekend, Box Office Mojo said. It was open in only 1,884 theaters, compared to the 3,752 showing Wreck-It-Ralph.
Rounding out the top three was a veteran, Argo, now in its fourth week in theaters. The Ben Affleck-directed thriller about the CIA's rescue of American government workers from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis, brought in slightly about $10.2 million, Box Office Mojo figures show. That film is distributed by Time Warner (TWX +0.00%) subsidiary Warner Bros.
For the coming weekend, anticipation is high that Skyfall, the first James Bond film in nearly four years, will perform well. It has already grossed $287 million overseas, according to Box Office Mojo, and will open in American theaters later this week. It is distributed by Columbia, a division of Sony (SNE +0.51%).
