CinemaNerdz

Box Office Weekend: Identity Thief Swipes Top Spot from Warm Bodies

Seth Paul
Box Office

Identity ThiefAs Valentine’s Day nears, you would expect to see more romantic movies hitting the cinema. Instead, the big winners of the weekend turned out to be an off-kilter comedy and a decidedly unconventional love story. Identity Thief debuted as the top spot taker, the Jason Bateman/Melissa McCarthy comedy earning back its entire budget in a single weekend with an estimated $36.6 million, though critics are enjoying it far less than the average moviegoer. Warm Bodies had to wait until week two to pull off the same feat, earning an estimated $11.5 million to bring its domestic totals to $36.7 million, making the zombie comedy/romance/thriller a modest success with more weeks to come.

On the flip side from Identity Thief, director Steven Soderbergh’s new film, Side Effects, opened to excellent reviews, but not the financial take; the reported $30 million budget was barely scratched with its estimated $10 million in box office, making it the second worst in total domestic gross in the top ten (the worst, Sylvester Stallone’s Bullet to the Head, made an estimated $2 million this weekend and $8.2 million overall, a far cry from its $55 million costs). Below it, Silver Linings Playbook remains a favorite, its estimated $6.9 million keeping it strong for its thirteenth week at the box office; and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters kept afloat for week three, earning an estimated $5.8 million. While seemingly a bust with only $43.8 million earned domestically, Hansel & Gretel has proven a bigger hit overseas with $127.8 million worldwide, all but ensuring its success despite its critical reception.

Other than Bullet to the Head, the latter part of the list belongs to a number of high earners that got critical marks as well. Mama pushed past the $64 million mark with an estimated $4.3 million, making back four times its production costs, while Zero Dark Thirty, with an estimated $4 million, doubled its costs, $83.6 million to $40 million. Argo returned to the list, quite possibly due to its reintroduction to nearly 500 theaters and Oscar talk, with an estimated $2.5 million getting a domestic run of $123.7 million in eighteen weeks at the box office, and while it may not have doubled, trebled, or quadrupled its budget, Django Unchained and its estimated $2.3 million still place it as director Quentin Tarantino’s most financially successful film to date.

Weekend Box Office (February 8th – February 10th)

  1. Identity Thief…$36.6 million
  2. Warm Bodies…$11.5 million
  3. Side Effects…$10 million
  4. Silver Linings Playbook…$6.9 million
  5. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters…$5.8 million
  6. Mama…$4.3 million
  7. Zero Dark Thirty…$4 million
  8. Argo…$2.5 million
  9. Django Unchained…$2.3 million
  10. Bullet to the Head…$2 million

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."
Exit mobile version