'A Good Day to Die Hard' squeaks into first as 'Identity Thief' hijacks second place

With Valentine's Day on Thursday and Presidents' Day on Monday, this was really a five-day weekend, which gave the three wide releases that opened on Thursday a real boost.

A Good Day to Die Hard placed first, earning $29.3 million over the four-day period and $37.5 million since its opening. However, the previous Die Hard movie earned $48 million over
its five-day holiday opening before Fourth of July in 2007. Because of the strong name recognition of the franchise, the fifth Die Hard movie should make up ground overseas, but it appears that this franchise is waning, even enough that it may be another five years before Die Hard 6. Because, really, how could there not be a Die Hard 6?

For romantics, Safe Haven was the Valentine's Day choice, inching out Die Hard on Thursday to place first before losing some steam over the weekend. It ended up third with $25.1 million, but earned a $34 million cumulative total. The Nicholas Sparks brand drew in viewers even though the stars
(Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel) are not necessarily household names. 71% of those that turned out were female, and 68% were under the age of 25.

Safe Haven stole a lot of thunder from Beautiful Creatures. Warner Bros. may have overestimated the appeal of the supernatural romance by placing it opposite a Nicholas Sparks-created offering. The Southern-set tale floundered, earned a quarter of Safe Haven's total on Valentine's Day and ended up with $8.9 million for the weekend, and $11.4 million cumulative total.

While an East Coast blizzard dampened Identity Thief's opening weekend, the comedy was rewarded in its second week by a huge hold, which saw the Melissa McCarthy-led feature lose just a third of its audience for a total of $ million and a second-place finish. When McCarthy pairs up with Sandra Bullock for this summer's The Heat, I fully expect a Hangover-like hit now that the Bridesmaids scene-stealer has proven she can open a film.

The animated Escape from Planet Earth tallied up $21 million over the long weekend, and could do even more weekday business since many kids have Presidents' Day week off. That's a solid debut for the title, which won't be getting much help from critics (just 29% positive).

Thanks to the holiday, most of the top twenty posted below-average drops or even gains. Warm Bodies lost just 22% of its audience, earning another $10.2 million and crossing the $50 million mark. Silver Linings Playbook inched just shy of the $100 million mark by earning $7.6 million over the four-day period.

On Friday, The Rock-led movie Snitch will open wide opposite the thriller Dark Skies. On Sunday, all eyes in the movie world will be turned to the Academy Awards.

"I choo-choo-choose you": On Valentine's Day, 'Safe Haven' and 'A Good Day to Die Hard' compete for date-night audiences

Three of this week's wide releases are getting a jumpstart on the weekend, opening today, Valentine's Day, instead of Friday in order to capitalize on couples celebrating and singles in search of a girls' or dudes' night.

Safe Haven (3,223 theatres) is the most heart-tugging offering of the bunch. Nicholas Sparks, reigning romance specialist, devised this tale. Julianne Hough plays a woman with a past who moved to a small town and finds herself enchanted with a storekeeper and single dad (Josh
Duhamel). Critic David Noh predicts this "appealing,
compelling romance that will no doubt thrill the ladies, and not be
too terribly much of a chore for their menfolk to endure."

For others, nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a bunch of guns. Those people can check out the fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard (3,552 theatres). After all, wasn't the original Die Hard a love story in disguise, as John McClane walked on glass in order to save his ladder-climbing corporate wife from terrorists and
show her that it took a real man to get things done? Unfortunately, this outing doesn't even warrant cultural commentary. According to critic Daniel Eagan, the Russian terrorist centered plot "unfolds on a gargantuan scale, but
the stunt work and pyrotechnics can't hide how dull and pointless
this story is. In previous entries, McClane fought to free his
family; here, he's largely a bystander in a plot that makes almost
no sense." Especially when movies like Taken, which centered on Liam Neeson's daughter being kidnapped, have been such big hits, it doesn't make sense that family jeopardy would be removed from the equation. The name "Die Hard" will "muster a strong turnout followed by weak word of
mouth," Eagan predicts.

Targeted at a younger audience, Beautiful Creatures (3,000+ theatres) is the latest
supernatural teen romance. The film is "atmospherically shot, with two appealing leads," says FJI critic Frank Lovece, who expects that actors Alice Englert and  Alden Ehrenreich should be on everyone's radar before long. Like Safe Haven, it centers on a romance between  a girl with a dark secret and a boy, but in this case her secret is supernatural--she's a witch, or "caster." It's unlikely this will do anywhere near the business of Twilight, but a good performance could spawn a sequel.

Tomorrow, there will be the first wide animated release since Rise of the Guardians during Thanksgiving. That may be enough to secure a strong opening for Escape from Planet Earth, which will open in over 3,000 theatres. It's never a good sign when the writers or directors of a project sue their producer, but that's what happened here. Of course, long-delayed, lawsuit-ridden Margaret ended up being a pleasure, at least among select critics, but the February release date does not demonstrate much faith in the animated work.

On Tuesday, we'll see how these releases fared and if they wooed audiences out from the post-holiday slump at the box office.