Looks like the power of old Disney cartoons in 3D has decreased as Beauty and the Beast 3D didn’t have enough steam to take down Mark Wahlberg’s Contraband over the weekend. The latter whipped up $24 million at the box office, with the former settling for second place and $17.7 million. Will Disney have more luck when they take their 3D re-releases to the Pixar world, beginning with Finding Nemo later this year? Guess we’ll see.

Meanwhile, the feel-good, choir-lovin’ teen flick Joyful Noise wound up in fourth place with $11.3 million, sandwiched between Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. As far as critical reception goes, Beauty and the Beast not surprisingly beat its competition with a 91% Fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, while Contraband (47% Rotten) and Joyful Noise (37% Rotten) did nothing to help squash the cliché that January is nothing but a dumping ground for bad movies.
 
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