The Top Ten From The Box Office This Weekend
Movie 1. Lone Survivor 2. Frozen 3. The Wolf of Wall Street 4. The Legend of Hercules 5. American Hustle 6. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 7. August: Osage County 8. Saving Mr. Banks 9. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones 10. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues | Weekend Box Office (in millions $) 38.51 15.07 9 8.6 8.6 8.02 7.32 6.58 6.3 6.1 | Total Box Office (in millions $) 38.89 317.66 78.59 8.6 101.56 242.22 7.86 68.95 28.47 118.52 |
Every now and again, I shed a tear and feel so proud of the moviegoing public. On first glance, this is one of those weeks. On a closer look, however, I'm actually furious with theater patrons. I'm a disappointed parent right now. On the one hand, we were all smart enough to (mostly) avoid the stinkbomb of The Legend of Hercules. On the other hand, Her goes wide release and hits... 13th? It can't even crack the Top Ten? I'm flabbergasted. But aside from my lecture, Lone Survivor managed to have the second-best January opening ever: not a bad performance for a movie that has to walk a fine line between "war drama" and "spark for a foreign policy debate". Through smart marketing that plays up the comradery of the soldiers involved and avoids the fallout from the mission the film is based on, it would appear they bucked the recent trend of Middle East war movies under-performing and got butts in seats. Once they were there, the audiences loved the movie, giving it a rare "A+" CinemaScore. Elsewhere, it's all the usual suspects without too many surprises, with even Frozen powering through the after-holiday Hollywood downturn to be the only other movie posting a double-digit take.