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

'Contraband'With three new hopefuls entering the domestic marketplace, auds on the sides with Universal's "Contraband," generating it $8.7 million yesterday.The Relativity/Working Title co-production apparently cost $25 million to create, and really should slightly exceed that in gross within the four-day weekend.In order to take advantage of Monday's school holiday and also the massive success of their "Lion King" three dimensional re-release, Disney opened up its three dimensional publish-converted "Beauty and also the Animal" Friday to $5.six million. Mouse distribution prexy Dork Hollis stated the "Lion King" conversion to three dimensional cost the studio within the low single numbers, meaning a relatively low open for "Beauty" (associates say near to $22 million through Monday) means solid returns for the organization.Third place Friday saw a defunct tie between Warner Bros.' opener "Pleased Noise" and Paramount's holdover "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol." Both made $3.3 million yesterday. The second, in the fifth week in release, has arrived at $178.5 million Stateside, as the former is searching in a four-day eat the mid- to high-teens.Componen Insurge's "The Demon Inside" added another $2.7 million yesterday for any domestic cume of $41 million. The scarer apparently cost only $a million to get, so even its astounding 87% week-to-week drop will not have executives worried. The functional drop is probably because of poor word-of-mouth, with 66% of auds giving the pic a Cinemascore of C or lower. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com