Propelled by terrific word of mouth, Facebook, and Twitter, Ben Affleck's Argo rose to the top of the box office in its third weekend, falling just 24.9 percent from a week ago to an estimated $12.26 million. With solid weekday business, the film has now grossed $61 million. In an interview with the Associated Press, Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman said, We're thrilled. An accomplishment like that is well deserved, they don't happen very often. You would probably have to do a lot of searching to find a movie that opened in wide release to have two No. 2 weekends in a row and hit No. 1 in the third week. Four new films had unimpressive debuts, none earning as much as $10 million. Warner Bros.' Cloud Atlas was the highest earner with $9.4 million, but even it was apparently edged out by the fifth week of Sony's animated Hotel Transylvania with $9.5 million. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D was in a toss-up contest with the fourth week of Taken 2 for fifth place, while Paramount's Fun Size and Fox's Chasing Mavericks bombed with just $4.1 million and $2.2 million respectively. With much of the East Coast bracing for a massive storm, the box office fell into losing territory again after rising four weeks in a row.



The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. Argo, $12.4 million; 2. Hotel Transylvania, $9.5 million; 3. Cloud Atlas, $9.4 million; 4. Paranormal Activity 4, $4.1 million.