As expected, the end of Valentine’s Day meant some slippage for SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), and allowed A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th) to take a narrow Friday lead, which it will probably hold for the rest of the holiday weekend. But according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the race is surprisingly close. Die Hard fell to $7.6M on Friday for a 2-day total of $15.8M, and a likely $35-38M by Monday. That would be at least $10M lower than the first 5 days of Live Free Or Die Hard, the last in the series (however, overseas boxoffice may well make up for that shortfall). That 2-day total is also below the $16.2M earned by Safe Haven on Thursday-Friday, although Die Hard‘s Friday was reportedly slightly ahead of Safe Haven‘s $7.4M. Considering the (deserved) dreadful word-of-mouth on Die Hard, while it’s expected to have the weekend advantage, the pair could be neck-and-neck to the wire.
The 2nd weekend of IDENTITY THIEF (Universal) is a notch below the newcomers, with a $12.3M Thurs-Fri, and what’s likely to be a $28-30M 5-day weekend. That should put it around $72M after 10 days, $10M ahead of the comparable period for Bridesmaids. Also holding well on a smaller scale is WARM BODIES (Summit/Lionsgate), which should be well over $50M by Monday.
The same can’t be said for the other Young Adult supernatural romance in theatres, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (Warners), which is having a tepid start that probably won’t reach much beyond $12M in its first 5 days. There are 3 other books in the Creatures series, but don’t hold your breath for sequels. After weeks without any new fare for the kid audience, the low-budget ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (Weinstein) debuted on Friday and took advantage of the shortage with a solid $3.6M that should give it around $20M in its first 4 days.
Among other holdovers, SIDE EFFECTS (Open Road) fell heavily despite the holiday weekend, a puny exit from the big screen for Steven Soderbergh. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (Weinstein), on the other hand, continues to hold beautifully, and should be at or very near $100M by the end of the long weekend as it nears the Oscar finish line.
About the Author
