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Posted February 20, 2012 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Weekend Box-Office: Safe House Places First in its Second Week

The estimates are in, and although they are down from last week, they still represent solid entries for the top earners on the list. Safe House bypassed The Vow to earn an estimated $24 million, though The Vow didn’t fare too badly itself, earning an estimated $23.6 million. The Vow has profited better at the box office, with a budget of $30 million to Safe House’s $85 million, but both films have done remarkably well, The Vow already surpassing $100 million in worldwide gross and Safe House coming in close behind it. And while it wasn’t a sterling debut, especially for a Marvel film, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance still did well considering the reputation of the original Ghost Rider film (and, as it turns out, the critical reception of this one), with an estimated $22 million in a budget half the size of its predecessor.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island fell to fourth place, but survived its second week rather admirably, holding onto a small drop to only an estimated $20.1 million. However, its domestic performance is far outshined by its international take, which, at $128 million, is well over twice its domestic sales. But even in a second weekend, it outstripped the rough start for This Means War, the $65 million budgeted spy action/romance/comedy only doing a relatively tepid estimated $17.6 million.

The biggest overall drop went to the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which dropped to an estimated $7.9 million. Still, of the major films to receive a 3D re-release, it still fared better than the 2009 release of Toy Story 1 & 2, with $33 million in domestic gross compared to the double feature’s $30 million.

Chronicle fell to seventh, though its $7.5 million in estimated sales is a much less precipitous drop than Phantom Menace, as is the estimated $6.6 million for The Woman in Black. The Grey, which landed in the tenth spot, didn’t drop too badly either, with an estimated $3 million; all three of these films have been profitable, though not runaway successes. On the other hand, the critically acclaimed The Secret World of Arrietty from Studio Ghibli would appear to be a flop with only an estimated $6.4 million in its opening weekend, but like Tintin before it, the international market has been incredibly kind, with the film earning $126 million in foreign sales.

Weekend Box-Office (February 17th – February 19th)

  1. Safe House…$24 million
  2. The Vow…$23.6 million
  3. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance…$22 million
  4. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island…$20.1 million
  5. This Means War…$17.6 million
  6. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace…$7.9 million
  7. Chronicle…$7.5 million
  8. The Woman in Black…$6.6 million
  9. The Secret World of Arrietty…$6.4 million
  10. The Grey…$3 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."