The franchise-spawning LEGO Movie easily topped the box office over the first three days of the President’s Day weekend as it declined a paltry 29.3% and earned $48.8 million, outpacing a couple of 1980s remakes including the Kevin Hart-starring About Last Night and the Jose Padilla-helmed Robocop, both of which debuted with over $20 million. Meanwhile another new 1980s remake Endless Love ended up in fifth with an estimated $13.4 million, and another new box office entry the romantic fantasy drama Winter’s Tale bowed at #7 with $7.8 million. For the first three days of this President’s Day weekend the total of the top 12 films was up 21.3% over the same time period last year when A Good Day to Die Hard debuted with $24.8 million.The LEGO Movie has now earned $129.1 million here in North America and appears destined to finish well over $200 million. The film’s second weekend total was estimated at $48.8 million, and is expected to reach $60 million for the full 4-day holiday, which will give it the second highest President’s Day weekend total ever, just behind the 2010 film Valentine’s Day, which earned $63.1 million.
Second place went to About Last Night, which brought in an estimated $27 million, the strongest opening for a romantic comedy since Think Like a Man, which opened in April of 2012 with $33.6 million and also starred Kevin Hart. The diminutive Hart, who also stars in the hit buddy comedy Ride Along, is turning into a major box office attraction. He may not have achieved the comic icon status of Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy yet, but he is well on his way. About Last Night is a remake of the 1986 Bratpack opus that starred Demi Moore Rob Lowe. The new About Last Night, which, in addition to Hart, stars Michael Ealy (Almost Human) and Regina Hall, attracted an audience that was older (57% over 30) and predominantly female (63%)--and the opening weekend crowds gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): February 14-16, 2014 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The LEGO Movie | $48,810,000 | 3,775 | $12,930 | $129,113,000 | 2 |
| 2 | About Last Night | $27,000,000 | 2,253 | $11,984 | $27,000,000 | 1 |
| 3 | RoboCop | $21,500,000 | 3,372 | $6,376 | $26,400,000 | 1 |
| 4 | The Monuments Men | $15,000,000 | 3,083 | $4,865 | $43,670,000 | 2 |
| 5 | Endless Love | $13,380,000 | 2,896 | $4,620 | $13,380,000 | 1 |
| 6 | Ride Along | $8,759,000 | 2,517 | $3,480 | $116,133,000 | 5 |
| 7 | Winter's Tale | $7,785,000 | 2,965 | $2,626 | $7,785,000 | 1 |
| 8 | Frozen | $5,855,000 | 2,101 | $2,787 | $376,046,000 | 13 |
| 9 | Lone Survivor | $4,076,000 | 2,013 | $2,025 | $118,402,000 | 8 |
| 10 | That Awkward Moment | $3,337,000 | 1,922 | $1,736 | $21,400,000 | 3 |
Third place went to Jose Padilla’s Robocop remake, which actually debuted midweek, though it earned just $2.8 million on Wednesday and $2.1 million on Thursday. Reviewers haven’t been too kind to the new film, but is it fair to think that the remake could have the same subversive effect that Paul Verhoeven’s 1980s version did? After the disappointment of the film’s first two days, its $21.5 million 3-day total doesn’t look that bad, though it should be pointed out that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance managed to earn $22.1 million during its President’s Day weekend debut. The good news for the $100 million Robocop movie is that it is doing well overseas where it brought in $70 million. The studio is hoping that the film will earn $200 million outside of North America. It will need all of that, since it is unlikely to come anywhere close to the $100 million mark here. Opening weekend audiences for Robocop were predictably male (62%) and older (64% over 25) and they gave the film an OK "B+" CInemaScore, a rather vague rating that isn’t a terribly good predictor of future performance.
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men continues to outperform its critical notices (only 34% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), declining just 32% in its second weekend as it earned an estimated 3-day total of $15 million, which pushed its domestic cumulative to $43.7 million.
Another 1980s remake, Endless Love, debuted in fifth place. This romantic drama was aimed squarely at the teen market, and the movie was "front-loaded" with Friday accounting for 55% of its $13.4 million 3-day total. The appeal of Endless Love was very limited--80% of the audience was female, and 76% was under the age of 25. They gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore, which could give it some legs beyond this Valentine’s Day/President’s Day weekend, but the drop from Friday to Saturday doesn’t bode all that well for the film’s box office future.
Universal’s Ride Along slipped from #3 to #6 in its fifth weekend in theaters, but it still managed to add $8.8 million to its domestic total, which now sits at $116.1 million.
The fourth new film of the weekend, Winter’s Tale is a romantic fantasy drama starring Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe that clearly targeted an older crowd. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman made his directorial debut in this adaptation of Mark Helprin’s 1980s novel. The $57 million movie earned just $7.8 million over the 3-day weekend, and appears to be money loser for Warner Bros. unless it somehow takes fire overseas.
Elsewhere Disney’s Frozen remained in the top 10 for a 12th straight weekend as it earned $5.8 million and finished in 8th place. Frozen has now earned $955 million worldwide and is now the third highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Check back here next week to see if the disaster film Pompeii or the time-traveling drama Welcome to Yesterday can unseat The LEGO Movie.
