Ben Affleck Argo movie weekend box office: Behind Taken 2 and Sinister? Affleck's rescue action drama opened in third place on Friday (October 12), having grossed quite a bit less than (the lower end of) early estimates. Starring Bryan Cranston and Affleck, the movie took in $5.93 million at 3,232 theaters, thus easily falling behind both T2's $7 million 3,706 locations and Sinister's -- surprisingly strong -- $7.45 million at only 2,527 locations according to studio estimates found at the web site Box Office Mojo. (Please scroll down to check out comparisons between Argo and Affleck's other recent directorial effort, The Town.) Now, let's not forget that Sinister's estimated gross includes $1 million from late Thursday night and midnight screenings. (Whether or not that's fair, midnight screenings are added to a movie's Friday box-office grosses. Thursday's generally isn't -- and shouldn't have been this time around. Above photo: A bearded, serious-looking Affleck in Argo.) So, which movie will lead the Oct. 12-14 weekend at the North American box office? Ben Affleck movies: Gone Baby Gone, with Casey Affleck; The Town with Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, and Rebecca Hall. Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, with Matt Damon, Minnie Driver. Armageddon with Bruce Willis. Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy and Dogma. Runner, Runner. To the Wonder. The Company Men. He's Just Not That Into You with Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper. State of Play, with Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren. Smokin' Aces. Man About Town. Clerks II. Hollywoodland, with Diane Lane. Surviving Christmas. Jersey Girl. Paycheck. Gigli, with Jennifer Lopez. Daredevil. The Third Wheel. The Sum of All Fears. Changing Lanes. Reindeer Games. Forces of Nature, with Sandra Bullock, Maura Tierney. Pearl Harbor with Josh Hartnett. The Argo cast includes Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter with Sondra Locke (Clint Eastwood's companion later on), Hearts of the West, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming with Eva Marie Saint; Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine, with Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Toni Collette), and John Goodman (Arachnophobia, Barton Fink, Trouble with the Curve, with Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, Clint Eastwood). Affleck is also one of the film's producers, along with George Clooney (Syriana, Up in the Air, with Vera Farmiga and Twilight's Anna Kendrick; Good Night, and Good Luck., with Frank Langella, David Straithairn, Patricia Clarkson; Michael Clayton, with Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson; Ocean's Eleven, with Matt Damon, Julia Roberts; Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen, E.R., The Perfect Storm, with Mark Wahlberg; and Grant Heslov. Sandwiched between Hotel Transylvania and Frankenweenie on Friday was Pitch Perfect. Directed by Jason Moore, and starring Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson, and Brittany Snow. Jake Gyllenhaal / Michael Peña / Anna Kendrick / America Ferrera's End of Watch has collected $28.22m, Clint Eastwood / Amy Adams / Justin Timberlake / John Goodman's Trouble with the Curve $25.28m, Jennifer Lawrence's House at the End of the Street $23.44m, and Karl Urban's disastrous Dredd $11.79m. Joseph Gordon-Levitt movies: Rian Johnson's Looper with Bruce Wilis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels; Premium Rush / Christopher Nolan's Inception, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Pete Postlethwaite, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page / Don Jon's Addiction / Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones / Elektra Luxx / Hesher / Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer with Zooey Deschanel / Stop-Loss / Shadowboxer / The Lookout, with Matthew Goode / Brick / Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin / Havoc / Forever Lulu / Latter Days with Steve Sandvoss, Jacqueline Bisset, Mary Kay Place / Looper with Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, / 50/50's with Seth Rogen / G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with Channing Tatum / The Dark Knight Rises with Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine. The current "official" September leader is the Reese Witherspoon movie Sweet Home Alabama. Also, Rush Hour, with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Brett Ratner. Hotel Transylvania voice cast Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the Hotel Transylvania voice cast includes Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs's Andy Samberg, Adam Sandler movies: Three Mississippi, That's My Boy, Zookeeper, Jack and Jill with Al Pacino, Grown Ups 2 with Taylor Lautner, Grown Ups with Chris Rock, Funny People, James L. Brooks' Spanglish with Tea Leoni, Cloris Leachman, Paz Vega; I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Just Go with It with Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston; Click, Reign Over Me, Bedtime Stories, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, The Hot Chick, The Longest Yard, Anger Management, 50 First Dates, Eight Crazy Nights, Mr. Deeds (remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, with Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur), Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, with Emily Watson; The Animal, Little Nicky, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Dirty Work, The Wedding Singer, with Drew Barrymore. Also: Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, and David Spade. Screenplay by Robert Smigel and Peter Baynham. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and featuring the voices of Andy Samberg, Anna Faris, James Caan, and Neil Patrick Harris, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The Smurfs, with Katy Perry. Looper: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises / Premium Rush / (500) Days of Summer / Latter Days) / Bruce Willis (Moonlighting / The Last American Action Hero / The Bonfire of the Vanities / In the Cold Light of Day / The Expendables 2) Directed by Rian Johnson, elements with Chris Marker's La jetée and Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys (Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt). Also in the Looper cast: Emily Blunt (The Administration Bureau / The Devil Wears Prada / The Young Victoria), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine / There Will Be Blood), Piper Perabo (The Prestige / Coyote Ugly), and Jeff Daniels (Terms of Endearment / Dumb and Dumber / The Purple Rose of Cairo / The Hours). Considerably less successful is 20th Century Fox's Won't Back Down, toplining Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart / Sugar Baby) and Viola Davis (The Help / Doubt, with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams). Directed by Daniel Barnz, Won't Back Down also features Oscar Isaac (Zack Snyder's Sucker's Punch), Holly Hunter (Jane Campion's The Piano, with Anna Paquin, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel / Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen, with Nikki Reed, Evan Rachel Wood / Broadcast News, with William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson), and Rosie Perez (Peter Weir's Fearless, with Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini / Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, with John Turturro, Danny Aiello). Frankenweenie voices: Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Conchata Ferrell, Martin Landau, Christopher Lee, Tom Kenny, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Martin Short. Taken 2 directed by Olivier Megaton, with Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace (Breaking Dawn - Part 1 and Breaking Dawn - Part 2). Liam Neeson movies: John Boorman's Excalibur with Nicolas Clay, Helen Mirren, Nicol Williamson; Krull; Love Actually, with Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Chiwetel Ejiofor; Roland Joffe's The Mission, with Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons; Taken; Besides Liam Neeson, the Taken 2 cast includes Breaking Dawn Part 2's busybody vampire Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, and D.B. Sweeney. Olivier Megaton, whose Colombiana and Transporter 3 were box-office duds in North America, directed the Taken sequel. Screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen; Wrath of the Titans with Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes; Clash of the Titans; Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, with Ben Kingsley; 5 Minutes to Heaven; Rob Roy, with Jessica Lange. Taken 2 biggest opening in NA since The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman.