Friday Report: 'Texas Chainsaw' Massacres Competition
Texas Chainsaw 3D opened in first place on Friday, while Django Unchained was tops among holdovers ahead of The Hobbit and Les Miserables.

Playing at 2,654 locations, Texas Chainsaw debuted to an estimated $10.2 million (including $1.15 million from 10 p.m. Thursday and midnight shows). That's about on par with the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake ($10.6 million), and noticeably ahead of the 2006 prequel ($7.35 million). Still, it's way below The Devil Inside, which scored $16.8 million on opening day at the exact same time last year. Lionsgate is expecting the movie to be very front-loaded and only wind up with between $21 and $24 million for the weekend.

Django Unchained took second place with $6.2 million, which is off 36 percent from last Friday. After starting behind Les Miserables, Django is now slightly ahead of that movie with over $92.4 million. By the end of the weekend, Django's total should be close to $105 million, and it's definitely still on pace to earn more than Inglourious Basterds ($120.5 million).

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey plummeted 51 percent to $5.23 million on Friday. For the weekend it should end up with around $16 million, and could even score the highest fourth weekend ever for a Lord of the Rings movie ahead of Fellowship of the Ring ($16.2 million).

Les Miserables fell 47 percent to an estimated $4.9 million, which was good for fourth place. The musical has now grossed $92.39 million (just behind Django), and will pass $100 million on Sunday.

Parental Guidance rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $3.13 million, which is down 38 percent from last Friday. To date, the Billy Crystal-Bette Midler family comedy has earned $45.8 million.

A handful of movies made noteworthy expansions on Friday, though results varied significantly. Anti-fracking drama Promised Land moved in to 1,676 locations but earned a paltry $1.31 million; the Matt Damon-John Krasinski movie will barely make it to $4 million for the weekend.

Zero Dark Thirty, on the other hand, had a fantastic expansion: the controversial CIA thriller jumped from five locations to 60 and scored $825,000. That translates to an impressive $13,750 per-theater average. For the weekend, Sony is expecting at least $2.5 million, which would make Zero Dark Thirty the first movie to earn over $2.5 million from less than 100 locations since Black Swan did it in December 2010.

Meanwhile, Not Fade Away was a disaster: the David Chase flick expanded to 565 theaters but earned just $80,000 for a terrible per-theater average of $142. The movie will be lucky to get to $300,000 for the weekend.

Tsunami drama The Impossible also expanded to 572 theaters, but Summit Entertainment is not currently reporting its Friday gross.

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Grosses for Friday, January 4, 2013