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.
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