Looks like we’re going to have another tight race at the top of the weekend box-office as last week’s #1 film, the Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams-led romance The Vow, brought in an estimated $7.4 million on Friday.
The Screen Gems feature had a stellar week following last weekend’s $41.2 million opening and going into this weekend was already over $71 million in just seven days, which makes it the 2012’s top grossing feature so far and it will easily become the year’s first $100 million earner.
In second is Columbia’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance with $7 million on Friday after being slammed by critics (myself included, read my review here). As of right now I can’t find any CinemaScore reporting to see what audience thought. However, a trip over to the IMDb message boards features several not-so-kind threads, one of which gave me a laugh with a user writing, “WHY DID SOME CRITICS SAY IT WAS ENTERTAINING?” Why indeed.
I have to believe that $7 million number will be the most Ghost Rider can expect as I anticipate this film will begin its decline immediately. I don’t expect it to hit $20 million for the three-day and may actually fall to third place behind Universal’s Safe House, which is holding on strong.
Last weekend it was a tight race between The Vow and Safe House with the former edging out the latter by just over $1 million. This weekend Safe House brought in an estimated $6.5 million on Friday and could actually creep to $20 million by Sunday, placing it in second place, once again behind The Vow.
Moving to one of the weekend’s other newcomers and a film that appears to have been bit hard by the success of The Vow is Fox’s This Means War starring Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine. The McG-directed feature took $5.6 million on Friday based on estimates, which would seem to imply it has fourth place all sewn up and probably something like $17 million for the weekend or perhaps a little more if it receives good word-of-mouth.
Disney’s release of Studio Ghibli‘s The Secret World of Arrietty brought in an estimated $1.7 million on Friday and considering it’s a family film it could move to $5 or $6 million for the weekend placing it somewhere around eighth or ninth position.
Finally, The Weinstein Co. released the Oscar-nominated documentary Undefeated in a grand total of five theaters where it brought in a measly $7,600. Let’s hope it does better over the weekend.
I have included estimates for the Friday top ten directly below (via Box-Office Mojo) and will be back on Sunday with a complete weekend wrap-up.
- The Vow – $7.4 million
- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – $7 million
- Safe House – $6.5 million
- This Means War – $5.6 million
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – $4.4 million
- Chronicle – $2 million
- The Woman in Black – $1.95 million
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – $1.91 million
- The Secret World of Arietty – $1.7 million
- The Grey – $803,000 million
