‘Safe House’, ‘The Vow’ Dominate Box Office Again, Hold Off ‘Ghost Rider 2′, ‘This Means War’
After debuting with a spectacular $41.3 million last weekend and earning a record $11.6 million on Valentine’s Day, The Vow is headed for another weekend date with the Denzel Washington-thriller Safe House atop the box office. The romantic drama, which stars Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, made an estimated $23.6 million from Friday to Sunday and is showing strong legs despite a lowly 29% Rotten Tomatoes score. The Screen Gems blockbuster is already at $85.5 million through 10 days and is on track to become the first $100 million release of the year by next weekend.
Sharing the top spot is another holdover, the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds spy thriller Safe House which may actually take the nominal #1 spot once studios release the actual numbers on Tuesday. The movie took in an estimated $23.96 million for the 3-day frame. The Universal pic has now claimed $78.3 million in 10 days, a strong showing for a studio who was reeling from a weak 2011 slate.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island claimed an estimated $20.1 million, good for fourth place. The Warner Brothers movie is holding strong (-26%) and could potentially move ahead of Ghost Rider over the 4-day President’s Day weekend due to the lack of family friendly alternatives.
Meanwhile, with $22 million, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance began in-line with Sony’s box office expectations but word-of-mouth is mediocre as shown by the “C+” CinemaScore for the sequel. Combined with the dismal 16% Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s likely that we have seen the last of the comic book character for a while. It’s surprising that Nicolas Cage continues to headline movies given that his last $100 million movie was National Treasure: Book of Secrets all the way back in 2007.
Rounding out the top 5 is Fox’s $65 million romcom/action hybrid This Means War which got off to a decent $17.55 million start after all. The studio was projecting a lowly $14 million after delaying the release of the Reese Witherspoon-Tom Hardy-Chris Pine vehicle due to the strength of The Vow . The movie may benefit from positive word-of-mouth as shown by the “A-” CinemaScore although the Flixster Approval Rating is an unimpressive 70%.
Overall, this weekend is outperforming the same period last year by 11.3%.
Weekend Box Office |
|
|---|---|
| 1. Iron Man 3 | $72.5M |
| 2. The Great Gatsby | $51.1M |
| 3. Pain and Gain | $5.0M |
| 4. Tyler Perry Presents Peeples | $4.5M |
| 5. 42 | $4.7M |
| 6. Oblivion | $3.9M |
| 7. The Croods | $3.6M |
| 8. The Big Wedding | $2.5M |
| 9. Mud | $2.3M |
| 10. Oz The Great and Powerful | $0.8M |
10 Comments
I like these box office reports and I’m glad that films can have longevity in like in this case where two films are able to hold of newer releases.
I saw this means war on Valentine’s Day and was not that happy with it unfortunately.
Yea it’s fairly rare these days that a movie, let alone two stay at the top of the box office in consecutive weeks.
It blows my mind that Reese Witherspoon is still commanding major paychecks after a string of box office duds such as Rendition, Water for Elephant and now This Means War. You look at this movie and it simply doesn’t make sense that Tom Hardy and Chris Pine are fighting to death for her. She looks like a soccer mom housewife who’s had two kids, not a super hot chick to die for. Now, just picture a Mila Kunis or Emma Stone in her place and this would have made much more sense.
You nail it on the head once again Gibbs! Moviefone actually had a great article about how Hollywood continues to pay actors past their prime the big dollars in the hopes that they regain their former luster.
How does Reese Witherspoon stays on the A-list? http://news.moviefone.com/2012/02/16/reese-witherspoon-a-list_n_1282938.html
Don’t forget the $15 million paycheck she received for one of the most recent box office bombs in How Do You Know? that cost $120 million plus $30 million in marketing and made over $40 million in the end.
You definitely made sense of everything that is wrong with her and that film. Not to mention that McG is a hack.
Ghost Rider 2′s opening weekend is half of the first movie. Absolutely terrible.
Wow that’s interesting that Safe House is still popular in its second weekend. But sheesh, $22 mil for Ghost Rider 2??? What’s more ghastly than that movie is the fact that people still want to see it [shakes head]
Rejoice, that’s probably the last we’ve seen of Ghost Rider for a while.
So wait, last weekend was the first time there were ever four movies to get $20 million, and it happened again this weekend? A bit odd.
This weekend is a holiday weekend though (President’s Day)
Trackbacks