"Ride Along" Continues its Winning Streak during Super Bowl Weekend

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Ride Along Avoids Awkward Moment, Three-peats Over Super Bowl Weekend
by Ray Subers
February 2, 2014


Over Super Bowl weekend, newcomers That Awkward Moment and Labor Day failed to generate much enthusiasm. As a result, buddy comedy Ride Along cruised in to first place for the third-straight week.

For the three-day weekend, the Top 12 earned an estimated $72.4 million. While that's a slight improvement over this same weekend last year, it's still a poor way to kick off the month of February.







Ride Along fell 42 percent to an estimated $12.3 million.

It's now earned just shy of $93 million, which puts it ahead of star Kevin Hart's Think Like a Man ($91.5 million).







Disney Animation blockbuster Frozen added an estimated $9.3 million, which was up two percent from last weekend. The increase can be attributed to the addition of the Sing-Along version of the movie, which accounted for roughly $2.2 million.

Frozen's $9.3 million 10th weekend ranks fourth all-time behind Titanic, Avatar and Slumdog Millionaire. The movie has now grossed over $360 million, and is on pace to pass Despicable Me 2 ($368.1 million) by Valentine's Day.







In third place, That Awkward Moment opened to an estimated $9 million. That's a bit better than 21 and Over ($8.8 million) and Don Jon ($8.7 million), though it's also the lowest nationwide debut yet for a Zac Efron movie.

Focus Features, which took on That Awkward Moment as part of its merger with FilmDistrict, executed a modest marketing campaign targeted almost exclusively at younger women. Not surprisingly, that's who turned out for the movie: the audience was 64 percent female and 61 percent under the age of 25.

That's the kind of breakdown that suggests a steep second weekend drop; add in middling word-of-mouth ("B" CinemaScore), and it would be surprising if this wound up with more than $25 million.








The Nut Job fell 37 percent to $7.6 million.

On Sunday, the animated flick passed $50 million.







Universal's Lone Survivor rounded out the Top Five with $7.2 million.

On Saturday, the Afghanistan war drama became the final 2013 release to reach $100 million.







At 2,584 locations, Labor Day bombed with $5.4 million. Among director Jason Reitman's movies, it's a bit above Young Adult ($3.4 million) and Thank You for Smoking ($4.5 million), though those movies were playing in less than half as many theaters.

It's also about on par with Kate Winslet's Revolutionary Road, which opened to $5.2 million at 1,058 locations.

The movie's audience was 59 percent female and 71 percent over the age of 25. It received a "B-" CinemaScore, and will be lucky to get anywhere near $20 million by the end of its run.







With $133.6 million, American Hustle is now director David O. Russell's highest-grossing movie ever ahead of last year's Silver Linings Playbook.







Gravity earned an estimated $1.1 million from its IMAX re-release, which accounted for over half of its $2 million weekend gross.

So far, Gravity has earned just under $264 million at the domestic box office, and should find its way past $270 million in the next few weeks.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3780&p=.htm









January 31 - February 2, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Ride Along $12,314,000 / $92,977,000
2. Frozen $9,310,000 / $360,013,000
3. That Awkward Moment $9,010,000
4. The Nut Job $7,613,000 / $50,246,000
5. Lone Survivor $7,161,000 / $104,855,000
6. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit $5,400,000 / $38,968,000
7. Labor Day $5,300,000
8. American Hustle $4,300,000 / $133,600,000
9. The Wolf of Wall Street $3,550,000 / $104,077,000
10. I, Frankenstein $3,520,000 / $14,490,000