'Just Go With It' and 'Justin Bieber' finish neck-and-neck

By Sarah Sluis

After weeks of the top movies hitting the teen millions, three wide releases opened at $25 million or higher.

Just Go with It finished just ahead of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, earning $30.5 million to the tweenybopper's $29.5 million. The Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy benefited from strong performance throughout the weekend, while Bieber's picture drew its biggest audience on Friday. Though he failed to win any Grammys last night, Bieber is still hot and his 3D concert film finished just under Miley Cyrus', and significantly higher than the Jonas Brothers' 2009 movie.

Gnomeo and Juliet boasted a surprisingly high finish in an animated-starved market, accruing $25.5 million. Though it was a "minor" animated film (to use Box Office Mojo's term) with little branding or expectations behind it, it also is distributed by Touchstone, a Walt Disney label. And no one has more experience marketing animated movies than Disney. In comparison, the darker 3D animated film Coraline previously held the record for a February-launched animated film, earning $16 million its opening weekend in 2009.

The Eagle had the most disappointing launch, ending up with $8.5 million. The audience skewed slightly older and attracted slightly more members under 35. Director Kevin MacDonald's (better-rated) 2006 film The Last King of Scotland still holds a spot in Netflix's Top 100 even though it earned just $17 million at the box office, so perhaps The Eagle can recoup some of its losses on DVD?

Opening in 15 theatres, Cedar Rapids was able to average $20,000 per screen, an impressive number that should bode well for future expansion. The mostly upbeat reviews (84% on Rotten Tomatoes) should turn into positive word-of-mouth that will propel this movie in coming weeks.

In the top ten, The King's Speech continued its run of minimal drops, dipping just 4% from last week for a total of $7.4 million. With a cumulative total of $93 million, it will be a week or two at most before it crosses the $100 million mark. I've seen this movie recommended heavily on Facebook in recent weeks as it's expanded into wide release, and yesterday it received an unintentionally amusing endorsement from "60 Minutes" Luddite Andy Rooney himself, who actually met King George. (I wonder what Andy Rooney would think of The Social Network...)

This Friday will also be a busy one. The sci-fi action movie I Am Number Four will open against the amnesia thriller Unknown and fat suit/cross-dressing comedy sequel Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son.

Crowded frame this weekend, from 'Bieber' to 'Juliet'

By Sarah Sluis

After some doldrum-y winter weekends at the box office, four films will go into wide release, hitting all kinds of demographics, from families, young teens, and action hounds to rom-com lovers looking for an early Valentine's Day date.

One of the more unusual offerings to take note of will be Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (3,105 theatres). Will the teen concert film end up playing more like the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which grossed $65 million, or Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, which finished up with a disappointing $19 million? Surprisingly enough, critics have been receptive to the tween-oriented "complete Bieber immersion," as described by critic David Noh. The Hollywood Reporter praised the "undeniably engaging musical portrait," and Noh got a kick out of watching the "obsessed fans" and their "ecstatic reactions," but notes that enjoyment "depend[s] upon how much of a stomach you have for grade-schoolers announcing their terrifyingly serious intention to be his wife."

With Valentine's Day on Monday, romantic comedy Just Go with It (3,548 theatres) should land on top. The plot, which tackles both a fake wife and fake divorce, includes plenty of moments for "chronologically adult but still smut-hungry millions of Adam Sandler fans," according to critic Shirley Sealy, but also benefits from the great chemistry between Sandler and co-star Jennifer Aniston, who are "loose and funny and simply good together."

The 3D animated movie Gnomeo & Juliet (2,994 theatres) has a bit of a musty odor to it, perhaps because it's been sitting on the shelf while its "outdated shout-outs" to The Matrix, according to critic Ethan Alter, lose their comedic potency. However, the family film may benefit from the equally stale selection of animated pics. Yogi Bear and Tangled have both been out for months, and most of the families that wanted to see these movies already have.

Just the mere mention of a Roman-era swords and sandals adventure makes me tired. Were any of these films in the last decade any good besides Gladiator? Perhaps that's why critic Maitland McDonagh, who admired The Eagle's (2,296 theatres) "gritty day-to-day detail," predicted the U.S. audiences won't flock to this tale, a "shame--but not a surprise." Focus, however, had success last year with its George Clooney-led spy movie, The American, so perhaps its elite take on the swords-and-sandals genre will bring in sophisticated audiences.

"Producer Alexander Payne further establish[es] his comic brand in Cedar Rapids (15 theatres), according to critic Rex Roberts, which is led by Ed Helms of "The Office." Roberts sums up Payne's plotbook as "idiosyncratic characters on a road trip fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, ignited by unlikely assignations with feisty women, detoured by the inevitable encounter with biker types and rerouted back toward order and sanity with our antiheroes refreshed from their adventures." The 81% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes suggest that critics have been chuckling at the film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

On Monday, we'll see if the infusion of fresh films at the box office led to $10 million plus debuts for all, or if the rush of content squeezed out an unlucky film.