US Box Office - Mark Wahlberg Delivers the Goods with Contraband

After so much speculation about the ailing North American box office in 2011, the first few weeks of 2012 are remarkably healthy...

The Mark Wahlberg action thriller Contraband is set to win the weekend with $23 million in ticket sales. Right behind it in second place is the 3D reissue of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with $18 million. Both Mark Wahlberg and the Disney 3D reissues have been hit or miss at the box office. Beauty and the Beast looks like it won't quite match the impressive take of last year's The Lion King re-release, but the films seem to be performing well enough to warrant the money being put into conversion.

Tom Cruise continues a solid holiday run into the New Year with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol which just inched out the new Glee-inspired choir musical Joyful Noise. Both of them netted about $11 million, with Ghost Protocol making a few hundred thousand more.

Last week's number one The Devil Inside dropped nearly 80% in its second week. The critically-savaged horror film opened strong but has been quickly crucified by poor word of mouth. Still, it managed $8 million in its second weekend.

The awards season crowd saw a modest boost this week. The Weinstein Company's The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep opened to a strong $5.5 million at 800 screens, almost exactly the same as last week's British import Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The Weinsteins have also been slowly expanding the awards hopeful silent film The Artist to just over 200 screens. This week it pulled in $1.2 million. The real test remains to be seen as the film rolls out to more screens. It will be interesting to see how more mainstream moviegoers react to a silent film.

Next week brings three more new releases with the George Lucas-produced airplane action film Red Tails, the return of Kate Beckinsdale to the Underworld franchise with Underworld: Awakening, and the Steven Soderbergh-directed spy thriller Haywire. With so much new product in the marketplace and the award season swell, the 2012 box office should set a strong pace.

Here's your top films for North America:

1. Contraband
Weekend Estimate: $23 million

2. Beauty and the Beast 3D
Weekend Estimate: $18 million

3. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Weekend Estimate: $14 million; $187 million total

4. Joyful Noise
Weekend Estimate: $11 million

5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Weekend Estimate: $8.5 million (weekend); $170m total

6. The Devil Inside
Weekend Estimate: $8 million; $44 million total

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Weekend Estimate: $6 million; $86 million total

8. War Horse
Weekend Estimate: $5.6 million; $66 million total

9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Weekend Estimate: $5.5 million (weekend); $125m total

10. The Iron Lady
Weekend Estimate: $5.5 million

Anghus Houvouras