'Devil' bests holdovers at Friday B.O.

'The Devil Inside'In a devilish upset, Paramount Insurge's "The Devil Inside" topped the domestic B.O. Friday with $16.9 million.The scarer is outperforming even its most generous of pre-weekend estimates. Thursday, insiders expected holiday holdovers to dominate the frame, and even yesterday after "Devil Inside" had taken $2.2 million in midnight screenings, revised estimates only jumped to around $8 million for Friday, half of the film's actual take."Devil Inside" might not do much better, however, because while genre pics tend to play well in this corridor, they are front-loaded affairs with steep three-day drop offs. Insurge, a new Par distribbery for which "Devil Inside" marks its second release after last year's "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," has shifted its three-day estimate to $30 million.With "Devil Inside" the only wide opener this frame, another Par pic, "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," took second with $6.2 million, bringing its domestic cume to $155.9 million.Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" took third yesterday with $4.3 million, followed by Sony's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" with $3.5 million. "Dragon Tattoo" has been performing well in mid-week sales, and its 34% week-to-week drop marks the best hold of all films in wide release.Racing a few spots ahead since last week, Disney's "War Horse" brings up the rear with $2.6 million. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com