Making its way into theaters in impressive fashion, "The Devil Inside" fared well better than expected while grabbing the top spot at the box office over the weekend of January 6-8, 2012.

The William Brent Bell directed exorcism focused film scored a powerful $16.9 million on opening day while forecasted to earn approximately $30 million over the course of the weekend.

Getting knocked down a spot is current runner-up "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," as the Tom Cruise and Paula Patton fronted action film pulled in $5.7 million on Friday while expected to bring in a total of $19 million during its fourth weekend of release.

Also sliding down a single position from the previous weekend is "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," as the Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr starring motion picture made $4.3 million on Friday while trending towards a weekend take of $13 million.

Rounding out the top five at the box office in estimated weekend totals are the highly-publicized book-based film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" ($ 10.8 million) and the Steven Spielberg directed movie "War Horse" ($8.5 million).