North American audiences cannot get enough of Empty Chairs, Empty Tables. And I'm not talking about the result of a visit from a chainsaw-wielding maniac, more of which in a minute. No, I refer to a neat little record established over the weekend by Les Misérables, the latest hit from the UK's super-producers Working Title.
On Sunday the stage adaptation became the fastest musical in North American box office history to cross $100m after accomplishing the feat in a mere 13 days. By comparison it took Chicago 65 days to cross $100m (although that movie opened in a limited number of theatres) while Mamma Mia! did it in 23. Les Mis is closing in on $100m outside North America too and should breast the $200m worldwide box office line within days.
This is some achievement. Musicals are a notoriously risky business – just ask the people behind Nine or Rock of Ages. Grease remains the highest-grossing entry in the genre on $188.8m, followed by Chicago on $170.7m and Mamma Mia! on $144.1m.
Les Mis stands a strong chance of overhauling at least Mamma Mia! if you recall the potency of the post-nominations period. This "Oscar corridor" is the time between nominations (coming up on Thursday) and the Academy Awards itself. Nominated movies have been known to generate approximately one-quarter to one-third of their entire box office in this slim time-frame as audiences seek out acclaimed awards contenders. Les Mis is likely to pick up a few nods by the end of the week. Its box office is likely to be frothy next weekend, bearing in mind that it is up for four Golden Globes on Sunday.
Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained also sailed past the $100m mark through the Weinstein Company in its second weekend in action and sits two places above Les Mis at No 2 on a very handy $106.4m. This means it is about a week away from overtaking Inglourious Basterds on $120.8m to become Tarantino's biggest hit at the North American box office.I didn't expect the signature sequences of stylised violence to sit well with audiences in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut. Just goes to show.
The Hobbit, meanwhile, fell two places to No 3 for Warner Bros. Show the Middle–earthers no pity: they've done fantastically well, even if this 48 frame-per-second business is going to take some getting used to. The movie stands at $263.8m after four weekends in release and has grossed more than $825m worldwide.
January has become a solid time to release horror movies as we saw in 2012 with The Devil Inside, so Lionsgate capitalised and launched Texas Chainsaw 3D at No 1 on $23m. This is all a movie like this needs to go on to enjoy a lucrative life on digital/VoD/DVD. There is no guarantee it will stay top next weekend when Warner Bros unleashes Gangster Squad and Open Road releases the horror spoof A Haunted House.
Gangster Squad is the movie starring Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone that earned some notoriety last summer when Warner Bros pulled a violent trailer in the immediate aftermath of the Aurora theatre shootings in Colorado. The fateful preview footage depicted mobsters spraying moviegoers with gunfire and the studio was quick to remove the scene from the movie and put back the release date from last September. Will the masses embrace it? We'll know next week.
2012 was a record year at the North American box office according to figures published in Variety, as the movies combined for $10.8bn in receipts. Bear in mind that tickets prices go up each year and 3D movies cost a premium to moviegoers. However the real indicator that the theatrical experience is in pretty good shape is that admissions climbed approximately 6% on 2011 to reach 1.36bn. Sony Pictures ruled the roost on $1.77bn, powered by hits like Skyfall and Men in Black 3. Warner Bros was next on $1.66bn and released The Dark Knight Rises and - towards the end of the year - The Hobbit, while Buena Vista finished third on $1.55bn. That studio released The Avengers, whose $623.8m North American gross was the highest of the year. The movie also scored the biggest opening weekend in history on $207.4m.
North American top 10, 4-6 January 2012
1. Texas Chainsaw 3D, $23m
2. Django Unchained, $20.1m. Total: $106.4m
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, $17.5m. Total: $263.8m
4. Les Misérables, $16.1m. Total: $103.6m
5. Parental Guidance, $10.1m. Total: $52.8m
6. Jack Reacher, $9.3m. Total: $64.8m
7. This Is 40, $8.6m. Total: $54.5m
8. Lincoln, $5.3m. Total: $143.9m
9. The Guilt Trip, $4.5m. Total: $31.2m
10. Promised Land, $4.3m. Total: $4.7m
• This article was amended on 8 January 2013. The original suggested the Gangster Squad trailer was released after the Aurora shootings, whereas it was some time before. This has been corrected.
