Although it also stars (and is produced by) Ice Cube, RIDE ALONG (Universal) goes down in the books as a big win for Kevin Hart, the focus of the movie’s marketing campaign. Based on preliminary numbers at The Hollywood Reporter, the action comedy is on its way to a $40M+ 4-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend after $13M on Friday, making for a very pleasant profit on its $25M budget (not including marketing costs). That should make it the #2 MLK weekend title ever, behind only Cloverfield‘s $46.1M.
LONE SURVIVOR (Universal) will be in 2d place for the holiday weekend, but it had an unexceptional hold, down more than 50% from last Friday to $6.7M. Thanks to the long weekend, it should have $25M by Monday and a $75M total, with $100M in its sights.
THE NUT JOB (Open Road) profited by being the only animation aside from the flop Walking With Dinosaurs to open since Frozen burst on the scene in November, and should run its $5.3M Friday to a 4-day weekend over $20M. FROZEN (Disney), for its part, isn’t going anywhere, and won’t be far behind Nut Job in its 8th weekend, possibly the 3rd biggest (behind Avatar and Titanic) after so long in the market.
The attempt to reboot JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (Paramount) didn’t excite action fans, and its $5.6M Friday won’t get it much past $20M by Monday. Its production cost was fairly moderate for a franchise launch at $60M, and it will hope for an international boost, especially in Russia, where much of the film is set.
This weekend’s low-budget found-footage horror quickie DEVIL’S DUE (20th) showed the increasing weariness of the genre with $3.3M on Friday and perhaps $10M by Monday.
AMERICAN HUSTLE (Sony) led the way among newly-minted Oscar nominees, up from last Friday at $3M, with a 4-day weekend that should add $12M to its total. AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Weinstein) could have $10M for the holiday weekend. We’ll have more details about the Oscar nominee expansions in the morning box office report.
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