By Chris Kavan - 02/24/13 at 10:31 PM CT
While many people were likely watching Oscar gold tonight - over the weekend not many people were watching new movies. February has been a slow month, and this weekend proved no exception with the total box office off 22% from the weekend last year. When a three-week-old comedy tops the box office, you know things are a bit stagnant.
1) IDENTITY THIEF
Although not many (including myself) gave this movie much of a chance, it turns out Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy get to have the last laugh. In its third week in theaters it popped right back up to first place with $14.06 million. It continues its run as the highest-grossing film of 2013 with a new total of $93.66 million. By next week it will be the only film of the year to hit the $100 million mark - but hopefully March will bring us some better news in that department. Seth Gordon should have no trouble passing up Horrible Bosses $117 million total in the long run either.
2) SNITCH
As action has been an incredibly hard sell this year, Dwayne Johnson shouldn't feel too bad that Snitch opened in second place with $13 million. Hey, it has already topped The Last Stand (currently at $12.02 million after six weeks), Bullet to the Head ($9.35 million after three weeks) and should be able to soon top Parker ($17.3 million after five weeks). It also managed to open better than Faster ($12 million) but it's apparent that Johnson's real strength lies in being part of a strong ensemble than leading man.
3) ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH
Another film that managed to jump a spot - Escape from Planet Earth went from fourth to third place (dropping just 30.7%) and added $11 million to its total of $35.1 million. Even though I still think it looks generic as an animated film can get, the lack of family films at the box office means this will finish with $50 million or more.
4) SAFE HAVEN
Although it took a 51% hit in its second week, this Nicholas Sparks adaptation took in $10.6 million and raised its total to $48.06 million. It's one of the few true date movies out right now and ultimately it should be able to top both The Lucky One ($60.5 million) and The Last Song ($63 million). And that means that we'll be seeing a lot more Sparks' adaptations because, let's face it, they sell tickets and as long as weepy-eyed women support them - they're going to continue to make them.
5) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD
After having an OK opening, Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney suffered a pretty steep 60% drop - taking in $10 million to top out at $51.8 million in two weeks. It's obvious that this is going to be the lowest-grossing Die Hard film to date (and, as far as I'm concerned, rightfully so). It probably doesn't have much chance at hitting its $92 million budget - at least not domestically. Luckily decent foreign grosses will make this work, but perhaps McClane should really retire this time.
Outside the top five:
Even though Mama proved that horror still has spark, it looks like Dark Skies isn't going to share the same love that was given. Opening in sixth place with $8.85 million - it's looking to follow in the footsteps of the forgettable Apollo 18 ($8.7 million) and fall out of the top ten rather quickly - especially with The Last Exorcism II coming right on its heels.
Silver Linings Playbook continued its impressive run, dropping just 3.1% (the best hold out of all films in the top 12) and jumping from 8th to 7th place with $6.05 million and raising its total to $1074 million after a grand total of 15 weeks in theaters. Expect it to continue to do well after the Oscars.
Next week sees a whole slew of new films - the aforementioned horror film The Last Exorcism II - the CGI action-fest Jack the Giant Slayer - the young-adult comedy 21 and Over and the submarine thriller Phantom. Can any of these four break us out of the 2013 box office funk? We'll see.
