Chronicle and The Woman in Black Duke it Out at the Box Office

New releases Chronicle and The Woman in Black each took in a higher-than-expected haul over Super Bowl weekend, though it was the former film—director Josh Trank’s low-budget sci-fi drama—that managed to climb to the top with a weekend gross of $22 million.

Still, The Woman in Black wasn’t that far behind, pulling in $21 million over the weekend. Last week’s surprise box office victor, The Grey (weekend gross $9.5 million, total gross $34.7 million), slid to number three, while new release Big Miracle‘s weekend take of $8.4 million was only enough to land it at spot number four. Rounding out the top five was Underworld: Awakening—its weekend gross of $5.6 million brings its total so far to $54.3 million.

Just out in limited release, Madonna’s W.E. raked in $45,000 at four theaters over the weekend—and if that makes the film’s per-screen average of $11,250 fairly lackluster, well, at least the director’s Super Bowl halftime performance was by all accounts very good. Also out in limited release were The Innkeepers ($32,000) and Kill List ($5,800).

Out next weekend in wide release are Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (for bad pun enthusiasts), Safe House (for generic-looking action thriller enthusiasts), The Vow (for Channing Tatum enthusiasts) and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace 3-D (for, er, 3-D post-conversion enthusiasts? Star Wars prequel trilogy enthusiasts? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?). New limited releases will include Exit Strategy, In Darkness, Perfect Sense, Rampart, The Turin Horse and the Oscar-nominated animated film Chico & Rita. MM