Heading into the weekend there were two conversations regarding Identity Thief, the first was that it wasn’t a very good movie, but despite that it would top the weekend box-office. The second was with regards to the mean-spirited review posted by Rex Reed, which was given far more attention than it deserved, but fortunately all the attention was negative as Reed proceeded to slam the film not because of its content, but instead with a mind to target star Melissa McCarthy‘s appearance. It’s quite telling when it comes to Reed and his focus on McCarthy’s weight, while most critics just deemed the movie unfunny, mourning the fact McCarthy has talent and the fact she had to stoop to a film that is otherwise beneath her. Either way, McCarthy gets the last laugh…
Identity Thief stormed the box-office, landing a whopping $36.5 million, which is $10 million more than Bridesmaids opened with back in May of 2011. It’s a massive opening for a February comedy and fourth to 2005’s Hitch, which starred box-office golden boy, Will Smith, 2009’s Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail and 2004’s Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore feature 50 First Dates. Granted, no one will confuse the quality of Identity Thief with Bridesmaids, and while I was not a fan, I’m happy to see it’s success in the face of Reed’s nasty comments, particularly because I feel McCarthy is the biggest reason people turned out to see it.
Question is, with the middling “B” CinemaScore, does this bode well for the McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, R-rated buddy cop comedy The Heat or could two potential stinkers in a row hurt her credibility with the audience?
Looking over the predictions Laremy posted on Thursday, he was right to have Identity Thief on top, but he was off by $14.5 million with his $22 million prediction. Looking at the readers’ predictions, no one else was willing to go to high either with Arthur Carlson‘s $27.5 million prediction being the closest on the board.
The weekend’s other new wide release was the excellent Side Effects from Steven Soderbergh, which I really didn’t expect to do too well at the box-office considering it’s a cerebral thriller and doesn’t involve superheroes, dreams or time travel. On a $30 million budget, the film opened to a meager $10 million and may be able to hold on from one week to the next better than some of its competition, but with a “B” CinemaScore I’m not expecting much.
Laremy was virtually spot-on with his $10.9 million prediction here while Mario was ever so much closer in the reader predictions at $9.28 million, though I respect CJohn‘s optimism and $21.2 million prediction. If only we lived in that world.
Elsewhere, last weekend’s number one, Warm Bodies, dipped only 43.5% to $11.5 million and is now over $36 million domestically on a $30 million budget. Silver Linings Playbook continues to hold on strong, dipping only 10.7% this weekend and now tallying over $90 million domestically. Argo slides back into the top ten, scoring $2.5 million and Sylvester Stallone‘s Bullet to the Head has the distinction of being the biggest dipper among the top ten, falling 56.5% and narrowly edging out Top Gun 3D (which I saw) for the tenth spot by a mere $80,000.
Next weekend I think we all know A Good Day To Die Hard will be #1 over the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven and the new young adult feature Beautiful Creatures, though the latter film will be an interesting one to track. I don’t know the budget on Beautiful Creatures, but Warner Bros. is clearly hoping for a franchise there and it’s a decent film to boot. We’ll see…
Otherwise, the weekend top ten is directly below. Any thoughts?
