The President’s Day weekend was good for Denzel Washington as, having placed second to The Vow last weekend, his film Safe House turned the tables on the romantic drama.
The action thriller dropped 41%, but still chalked up $23.6 million and is on course to become the Oscar-winning actor’s most successful film at the North American box-office, taking over from American Gangster.
Top five films
Falling to second, but with its powerful $11.6 million take on Valentine’s Day itself, The Vow became the year’s most successful film. Its $23.1 million weekend brought the romantic drama’s total to $85 million, becoming Screen Gem’s highest grossing film to date.
Five years ago, Nicolas Cage posted his most successful opening weekend - $45.4 million with Ghost Rider. The year proved to be a good one for the actor as, in addition, National Treasure: Book of Secrets posted a $220 million box-office: the actor’s most successful in a long and varied career.
Ghost Rider, however, quickly fell away for what was at the time the biggest President’s Day weekend opening in history and struggled to a $115.8 million total. Five years later, Johnny Blaze is back.
Cage’s career has been in something of a tailspin since 2007, with high profile, big budget failures such as Season of the Witch and Drive Angry. And Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance looks to continue the pattern – a hugely disappointing $22.1 million placed the film in third spot. Even worse news for Cage saw the four-day weekend returns place his latest feature in fourth spot with $25.5 million.
Far outdoing even the most positive predictions, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island starring The Rock dropped just 27% to $19.8 million and a $53 million total. But in a topsy-turvy four-day weekend in which no less than three films topped the daily chart, Journey 2 proved to be North America’s most popular film on the Monday. (The Vow was Friday's number one film with Safe House taking over on Saturday and Sunday).
Rounding out the top five was the second major new release of the weekend, This Means War. A reasonable preview opening on Valentine’s Day itself ($1.6 million) but with poor reviews had reduced expectations of the romantic action thriller starring Reece Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy. However, $17.4 million proved to be a solid opening and enough for that precious top five spot.
Limited releases and holdovers
Japanese anime film The Secret World of Arrietty, loosely based on the children’s novel The Borrowers, opened in the top 10 with $6.4 million. Released by Disney in the US, the film, first released in japan in 2010, made more than $100 million at its local box-office.
In the final full weekend before the red carpet is rolled out at the final Oscar ceremony to be held at the Kodak Theater, the nominated features had mixed success. The Descendants, The Artist, Hugo and The Iron Lady all remain in the top 20, with all except the Oscar frontrunner recording small drops on last weekend. The Artist, for the first time in several weeks, posted an increase – 9% saw a $2.4 million box and $27.5 million total. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, generally disliked by the critics, continues to crumble – a 57% drop to $30.6 million kept the Tom Hanks film just inside the top 20.
Theatre average champ was the Chinese film Love, starring one of China’s most popular young actresses, Wei Zhao. On seven screens, the anthology feature of interconnected stories and characters, attracted an $11,900 average. It comfortably displaced last weekend’s number one: Spanish animation Chico & Rita drew $6,200 on five screens.
Four-day weekend
The four-day weekend attracted $192.6 million at the box-office, some 11.5% up on last year’s figure. There was little difference to the positions of the top twenty films with the major exception of Journey 2 topping Ghost Rider 2. Family oriented films and Oscar nominated features also benefitted from the extra day’s holiday.
Top five films at the North American box-office, weekend 17-19 February
- Safe House (Universal), $23.6 million ($77.9 million)
- The Vow (Screen Gems), $23.1 million ($85 million)
- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Sony), $22.1 million ($22.1 million)
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Warner Bros), $19.8 million ($53 million)
- This Means War (Fox), $17.4 million ($19 million)
Top five films at the North American box-office, 4-day weekend 17-20 February
- Safe House (Universal) $27.5 million, ($81.8 million)
- The Vow (Screen Gems), $26.6 million ($88.6 million)
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Warner Bros), $25.9 million ($59 million)
- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Sony), $25.5 million ($25.5 million)
- This Means War (Fox), $20 million ($21.6 million)
Keith Lawrence - Published writer of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites, predominantly on culture, alongside ghostwriter/editor/copywriter.
Join the Conversation