Movie Projector: ‘Devil Inside’ to challenge ‘Ghost Protocol’

Low-cost horror movie “The Devil Inside” will try to do what Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks and a girl with a dragon tattoo couldn’t: knock Tom Cruise out of the top box-office spot.

“The Devil Inside,” about a woman investigating her mother’s exorcisms, probably will open this weekend to between $12 million and $15 million, people who have seen pre-release audience surveys said. That should put it very close to Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which after two weekends in the No. 1 spot is expected to drop to about $15 million.

The hit “Mission: Impossible” sequel, which has rejuvenated Cruise’s sagging star status, has so far grossed $145 million in the U.S. and Canada, and an additional $254 million overseas.

Paramount Pictures, which is releasing both movies, is essentially competing against itself for the weekend box-office crown.

The likely results for “The Devil Inside” — the weekend’s only new release to open nationwide — should please the Viacom Inc.-owned studio, which spent less than $1 million to acquire the movie. It is the second film from the studio’s low-budget and youth-oriented Insurge label, whose debut offering was last year’s hit documentary “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.”

Moviegoers under 25 make up most of the audience interested in the R-rated “Devil Inside.”

The first weekend of January is typically a slow one at the box office, but important for establishing which of the large number of movies released around Christmas have strong-enough word of mouth to keep playing through the winter.

Among the pictures that did decent business over the holidays and will be looking for a modest drop this weekend are “War Horse,” “We Bought a Zoo” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

ben.fritz@latimes.com