box office

WEAKEND BOX OFFICE: Disney Animation has done it again. Wreck-It Ralph bowed with a robust $49.1m, nearly doubling the revenues of Paramount’s debuting Flight, which generated $25m. The two films had nearly identical per-screen averages, however, Flight’s $13,275 in 1,884 theaters a hair above Ralph’s $13,086 in 3,752 theaters. That suggests that both films have legs—and perhaps that people sought the escape of a movie in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. WB’s hit Argo, which had climbed to #1 in its third week, was off by just 15.2% this weekend, totaling $10.25m to take third place. Another debut, Universal’s The Man With the Iron Fists, landed at #4 with $8.2m, while Fox’s Taken 2 ($6m/-22.2%), in its fifth week), kept WB’s Cloud Atlas ($5.25m, -45.4%) out of the Top 5 in its second week. (11/5a)