Box Office | featured news

It’s a generally-accepted expectation of new releases to reel in top numbers at the box office on their opening weekend—this week, that was not the case. This weekend, the top spot was occupied by a holdout from three weeks ago: Identity Thief, which pulled in $14 million, for a very respectable total of over $93.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Despite the paltry reviews most of this last week’s releases received, they all made a somewhat respectable showing for themselves at the box office. First and foremost among the new releases is A Good Day to Die Hard, which grossed $25 million over the weekend, for a total of $33.2 million (as the film first opened in theaters on Valentine’s Day). As tired as the franchise is, it clearly has enough appeal to muster enough fans to make decent numbers on its opening weekend.

‘‘Identity Thief’’ has turned out to be the real thing at the North American box office. The comedy starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy debuted at No. 1 with a $36.6 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. ‘‘Identity Thief’’ opened solidly despite the winter storm that buried much of the U.S. Northeast. Distributor Universal Pictures estimates the storm might have choked off as much as 10 percent of the movie’s business.

"Identity Thief" topped the box office on Friday night, scoring $11.2 million despite the fact that much of the Eastern seaboard was buried under a massive snowfall. The Universal comedy, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, is performing beyond expectations and should earn a strong $34 million or so for the weekend. Studios are unsure how the blizzard will affect the rest of the weekend, as many theaters in New England are closed. http://www.hitfix.com

The box office grosses played out very predictably this weekend; this meant good news for one of this last week’s releases, and not-so-good news for the other.
Warm Bodies made the top of the box office chart with a total gross of a little over $20 million (numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo); given that its ratings were probably better than those of the last two weeks’ other releases combined, this is hardly surprising.

Crime-thriller "Parker" -- pairing Jason Statham with Jennifer Lopez -- is likewise D.O.A. as a glut of R-rated films make life tough at the domestic box office... Paramount and MGM's action-comedy Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters topped the weekend chart with a $19 million opening but underperformed despite star Jeremy Renner and the upcharge for a 3D ticket. Hansel & Gretel, like other films, took a big hit Friday night because of a major snowstorm stretching from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic.

Paramount and MGM's R-rated version of the classic fairy tale stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton; "Movie 43" draws a D CinemaScore despite its star-studded ensemble cast. read more

Jessica Chastain in a low-budget horror flick overpowered Mark Wahlberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger to emerge as the weekend box office champ.

The governator's first leading role in nearly a decade is looking at a 10th place finish for the long MLK holiday weekend; "Silver Linings Playbook" surges as it expands nationwide. New horror pic Mama and holdover Zero Dark Thirty -- both starring Jessica Chastain -- easily topped the Friday box office with $10.1 million and $4.6 million, respectively.

The Friday box office estimates for "Zero Dark Thirty" are in and they are looking good. While it has been playing in limited theaters since Dec. 19, the controversial Kathryn Bigelow movie had its wide release on Friday. "Zero Dark Thirty" made $9 million across 2,937 theaters. The torture scenes in the movie have been the subject of debate, with the most recent input from Sony co-chair Amy Pascal.