Weekend Box Office Report: February 7-9 2014

 

BOX OFFICE REPORT February 7-9, 2014(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The LEGO Movie ($69.1 million)2. The Mouments Men ($22.7 million)3. Ride Along ($9.3 million)4. Frozen ($6.9 million)5. That Awkward Moment ($5.5 million)

 

The LEGO Movie built itself a tremendous debut. Its estimated $69.1 million is the second-biggest February opening ever, behind only The Passion of the Christ ($83.8 million). The movie has an impressive 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes right now, higher than any of the year's Best Picture nominees. Kids and adults both seem to love the film, judging by its 'A' CinemaScore. Despite a lot of competition next week, it seems destined to repeat its feat.

Lots of bloggers were stumped when George Clooney's The Monuments Men got bumped from its prime awards season date to February. Although it's impossible to say, it's likely that The Monuments Men did a lot better this weekend than in December, when the negative reviews would have almost certainly buried it. $22.7 million proves that lots of people were interested in the historical drama despite the bad press.

Ride Along became the first movie of 2014 to pass $100 million. It took only 23 days. That's the fastest a true January release has gotten there. Frozen spent its 11th (yeah, 11th) weekend in the Top 5 and That Awkward Moment pulled in another mediocre $5.5 million. 

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Kids for Cash, a controversial documentary about a notorious judge who imposes harsh sentences on the children who enter his courtroom. It averaged $10,200 on each of its four screens.

- Vampire Academy became yet another failed franchise starter. It earned only $4 million. That's a far cry from the director of Mean Girls' heyday. It will likely end up as Mark Waters' lowest-grossing film ever

- It's been a bad year for horror thus far. I, Frankenstein, Devil's Due and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones have all made less than $35 million. Hardly the success that Mama and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters brought last year.

Next week: It's three romantic movies against one action flick. About Last Night, a remake of the '80s comedy with a mostly black cast is the only comedy of the bunch. It faces the Nicolas Sparks-ish Endless Love and the supernatural drama Winter's Tale. I expect that action flick, an unnecessary remake of RoboCop to do the best. It's been promoted relentlessly during the NFL playoffs. I'll say that's good enough for No. 2 with $35 million, just behind The LEGO Movie. As for the rest? About Last Night will do the best because it has the key ingredient to success the others lack: Kevin Hart. He should be good enough for at least No. 3 with $20 million, while the others will be fighting for less than $10 million each.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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