Chronicle soars, The Woman in Black suprises and Big Miracle sinks at the US box office

The found footage superhero film Chronicle should barely edge out the return of Hammer horror at the North American box office...

It was a nail biter... Separated by only a few hundred thousand dollars, the superhero movie pulled Chronicle in an estimated $20 million. This original attempt at launching a superhero franchise has been well received by a skeptical online community, with director Josh Trank getting a lion's share of the credit. His name is now being mentioned as a potential attachment to every long-gestating comic book adaptation, while the found footage premise seems more 'hit' than 'miss' after nice returns for Chronicle and January's The Devil Inside.

CBS Films' The Woman in Black came out of nowhere and almost seized the top spot. Daniel Radcliffe's first big post-Harry Potter vehicle ended up with $19.5 million over the weekend. It's the biggest opening for fledgling distributor CBS Films and a big win for both Radcliffe and Hammer, the long dormant horror brand.

Last week's number one film The Grey dropped the traditional 50% pulling in 9 million dollars over the weekend. The well-reviewed thriller didn't inspire as much interest with audiences as it did with critics. The ending has become a major discussion point and The Grey is easily the most polarizing film that's been released in some time. There was hope that the conversation would translate into word-of-mouth ticket sales; however, much like the characters in the survival flick, hope didn't end up amounting to much.

The other wide release this week was the Drew Barrymore family film Big Miracle. The true story of three trapped whales and the rescue mission to save them didn't generate much interest. Even though there's an extreme lack of family films in the marketplace, Big Miracle didn't end up filling the void and should end up with only 6 million dollars over the weekend.

With the exception of The Grey, last weekend's holdovers have fallen fast. Katherine Heigl's One for the Money and Sam Worthington's Man on a Ledge will each end up around $5 million in their second weekend. Both films have already been written off as marked disappointments.

The Descendants continues to be the one film greatly benefitting from Oscar nominations, with its week over week hold continuing to be the strongest of all current releases. The film has been out since November and continues to linger in the bottom half of the top ten. In its 9th week of wide release it will make almost as much as Man on a Ledge in its second week or Red Tails in its third. There's still money to be made in arthouse films if you're willing to be patient and have a marketing team who understands how to platform a film.

Next week is another major cinematic traffic jam. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson tries his hand at another big CG spectacle with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and speaking of 'CG spectacle', next week also marks the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace. For the ladies there's Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum in the romantic drama The Vow, and Denzel Washington stars as a wicked villain matching wits with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House.

Here's your top films for North America...

1. Chronicle
Weekend Estimate: $20 million

2. The Woman in Black
Weekend Estimate: $19.5 million

3. The Grey
Weekend Estimate: $9 million; $34 million total

4. Big Miracle
Weekend Estimate: $6 million

5. One for the Money
Weekend Estimate: $5 million; $14 million total

Anghus Houvouras