‘Ride Along’ eases ahead of ‘Awkward’

As expected, the domestic box office turned in a series of soft numbers over this past, Super Bowl weekend. The top 12 films earned a combined $72.4 million – which, however, is still a small improvement over this same weekend last year. Clocking in at No. 1 yet again, Ride Along experienced a slight downturn of 42% to earn $12.3 million. The cop comedy has now raked in a little under $93 million in total, and has officially pulled up ahead of Kevin Hart’s last hit film, Think Like a Man, which grossed $91.5 million in 2012. This is the third weekend in a row Ride Along finished the weekend ahead of its competitors. Such a distinction has earned it a place among lucrative company: Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug also reigned as kings of the box office for three or more consecutive weekends.

Speaking of royalty, the princess protagonists of Disney’s Frozen have yet to lose their appeal. The Mouse House released a sing-along version of its tenacious hit film, and the gambit paid off. Frozen climbed right back up the box-office charts to land at No. 2 this weekend, adding another $9.3 million to its staggering cume of $360+ million. It’s on track to out-gross Despicable Me 2 ($368.1 million) by mid-month.

That Awkward Moment will likely be on its way out by the time Frozen reaches the aforementioned benchmark. Moment marks the worst opening yet for a Zac Efron vehicle: The film debuted to $9 million. With an underwhelming Cinemascore rating of a “B” and less than laudatory reviews from the critics, That Awkward Moment will probably flame out to $20 million or so by the time it finishes up its theatrical run.

At No. 4, The Nut Job earned $7.6 million and crossed the $50 million mark on Sunday (we should have opted for a lively kids’ film over yesterday’s ho-hum football game, too). Lone Survivor just missed besting the animated caper, grossing $7.2 million and enjoying a box-office milestone of its own: The film has now earned $100 million. In fact, Survivor is the last 2013 release to do so, making it the 35^th movie in the past year to earn $100 million or more – a new box-office record.  The last year to have seen so many $100 million successes was 2009, when 32 movies earned the distinction.

Unfortunately, Labor Day’s distinction is not nearly so positive. The Jason Reitman romance had the worst opening of the weekend. Day bombed with $5.4 million. Technically speaking, the film’s debut is better than previous Reitman efforts Young Adult ($3.4 million) and Thank You for Smoking ($4.5 million), however, those films both had much smaller releases, opening in roughly half the number of theaters than Labor Day. Reitman’s contemporary David O. Russell, on the other hand, is in the midst of a career upswing. American Hustle is now the director’s most successful movie, beating Silver Linings Playbook with its current standing of $133.6 million.

Finally, Gravity added $2 million to its domestic cume of $264 million. Over half its earnings stemmed from IMAX screenings.

Top bunk goes to 'The Roommate'

By Sarah Sluis

You have to hand it to The Roommate, which earned $15.6 million from gullible young audiences who hadn't been around for Single White Female. Dismal reviews, like that from The Hollywood Reporter, described the movie as a "made-for-television thriller that will appeal only to younger audiences." But though these high schoolers' ticket purchases may have been an act of youthful inexperience, they knew better than to pay attention. "In the theater where I saw it," Movieline critic Elvis Mitchell comments,"the tedium was broken only by the sound of Angry Birds being played on iPhones."

The Super Bowl caused most films to drop in the 60-70% range from Saturday to Sunday, and Sanctum, which fell 71%, was one of the sporting event's victims. The trapped-in-a-cave movie tallied up just $9.2 million, even with ticket surcharges for 3D and IMAX. Ouch. With a reported budget of $30 million, this is one film that's going to be in the hole for awhile.

The films that fell the least during Super Bowl Sunday were The King's Speech (50% drop) and Yogi Bear (44.9% drop). Though films targeted towards young females have dominated Super Bowl counterprogramming, it appears that families and those seeking specialty fare were more inclined to catch a movie instead of the game. After all, The Roommate fell 65% on Sunday, in line with most of the other top ten films.

Portland-set mumblecore crime thriller (really) Cold Weather brought in $15,000 for IFC Films, a decent one-screen debut. Waiting For Forever, however, earned just $3,000 per screen on three screens. At one point, leading lady Rachel Bilson ("The O.C.") had the cachet of Roommate star Leighton Meester ("Gossip Girl"), but this movie's lackluster performance shows how quickly one can rise and fall.

This Friday will be a crowded one, with four wide releases hitting theatres: Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, romantic comedy Just Go With It, 3D animated pick Gnomeo and Juliet, and historic action film The Eagle.

Horror & romcom go head to head on Superbowl weekend

By Sarah Sluis

It's Super Bowl Weekend, when studios shy from male-oriented fare at the box office and usually lob a

chick flick. Although the Sunday afternoon/evening event doesn't seem like the biggest deterrent against a Friday or Saturday night movie, for some, the pre-game anticipation makes other events verboten: it's also the least-booked weekend for weddings.

Still, Fox has decided to release male-oriented Taken (3,183 screens), hoping to generate enough business Friday and Saturday to make up for a weak Sunday. Our critic Jon Frosch called the Liam Neeson kidnapping thriller a "toxic combination of grim and

silly" that he "alternately yawned and scoffed" his way through before realizing "the real hostage in this mess is you." Viewer beware.

New in Town, the Renee Zellweger film that underwent a name change in hopes of giving a facelift to the soulless comedy, releases on a concentrated 1,941 screens. With more people in a theatre, maybe the laughter will seem louder and more contagious? According to our reviewer Harvey Karten, who saw the film in a fairly packed theatre of critics, the "shortage of laughs comes close to emulating our current budget deficits."

Joining the parade of Japanese horror remakes, The Uninvited (2,344 screens) seems a promising if



formulaic remake of Korea's A Tale of Two Sisters. The idea of an evil, infiltrating stepmother is compelling and delicious to teen audiences, and is my pick for number one at the box office this weekend. As an added bonus, the cast includes Elizabeth Banks. Making her fourth appearance in the past four months (following Role Models, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and W.), she just might be the new Kevin Bacon.

For those living in New York, a trio of somberly titled movies releases: Blessed is the Match: the Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Medicine for Melancholy, and Shadows. Each qualify for my loose definition of "somber" in a different way. Shadows is a Holocaust documentary "bereft of...emotion and fire," Medicine for Melancholy could be loosely described as Before Sunrise, plus depressing racial commentary conducted with "self-indulgence and sluggishness," and Shadows is a creepy Macedonian-language thriller whose villain "Monster Mom," "dug up a few graves of refugees, suicides and unbaptized babies to

use for medical research." All in all, a charming array of options for those looking to complement their weekend of hot wings and seven-layer dip.