'Contraband' leads MLK weekend B.O.

Universal's weekend domestic B.O. winner "Contraband" improved on Sunday's $24.1 million three-day estimates to gross a revised $24.5 million from Friday to Sunday. That boosted the pic's four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend estimates to a total $28.8 million. In second place domestically, Disney's 3D retrofit of "Beauty and the Beast" came in slightly softer than originally projected, with three-day grosses totaling $17.7 million -- only 4% less than Sunday's projection -- and four-day figures at $23.5 million. (The Mouse likely overestimated the effect of the holiday weekend on "Beauty.") The higher weekend take for "Contraband" is promising news for the film as it enters holdover mode. Pic scored a solid A- CinemaScore rating. Warner Bros.' "Joyful Noise," meanwhile, came in line with the studio's original three-day estimates ($11.3 million) for a four-day take of $13.8 million. Not surprisingly, "Noise" drew strong responses from auds in the South, with 73% women and 78% over 25. At the specialty B.O., the Weinstein Co.'s Globes winner for actress-drama "The Iron Lady" scored $6.5 million through Monday from 802 locations. Pic has cumed $7.1 million. The Globes pic winners, "The Descendants" and "The Artist," grossed in four days $2.5 million and $1.5 million, respectively. Fox Searchlight plans to further expand "Descendants" (having cumed Stateside $47.5 million) on Friday; Weinstein's "Artist," with $9.1 million domestically, also broadens this weekend. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com