'Contraband' steals top place at Friday B.O.

'Contraband'With three new hopefuls entering the domestic marketplace, auds around the sides with Universal's "Contraband," producing it $8.7 million yesterday.The Relativity/Working Title co-production apparently cost $25 million to produce, and may slightly exceed that in gross inside the four-day weekend.To be able to make the most of Monday's school holiday as well as the massive success of the "Lion King" 3d re-release, Disney opened up up its 3d publish-converted "Beauty as well as the Animal" Friday to $5.6 000 0000. Mouse distribution prexy Dork Hollis mentioned the "Lion King" conversion to 3 dimensional cost the studio inside the low single amounts, meaning a comparatively low open for "Beauty" (affiliates say close to $22 million through Monday) means solid returns for that organization.Third place Friday saw an inactive tie between Warner Bros.' opener "Pleased Noise" and Paramount's holdover "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol." Both made $3.3 million yesterday. The 2nd, within the fifth week in release, has showed up at $178.5 million Stateside, because the former is searching inside a four-day consume the mid- to high-teens.Componen Insurge's "The Demon Inside" added another $2.7 million yesterday for just about any domestic cume of $41 million. The scarer apparently cost only $millions of to obtain, so even its astounding 87% week-to-week drop won't have professionals worried. The running drop is most likely due to poor word-of-mouth, with 66% of auds giving the pic a Cinemascore of C or lower. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com