Friday Box Office Analysis
by Tim Briody
February 23, 2013
It's Academy Awards weekend, so nothing of great importance was released, but don't tell that to The Rock.
Snitch
Snitch, the first of a bunch of films this year starring current WWE Champion The Rock, starts off with $4.1 million. That's good enough to tie for first place on Friday. Rocky's non-franchise, non-family films tend to never do anything special at the box office, as it's Fast and Furious 6 and G.I. Joe: Retaliation that are going to be his big earners in 2013. Snitch is not going to win the weekend, but it will have an okay weekend of $11.8 million.
Dark Skies
Supernatural thriller Dark Skies earned $3.1 million. Not great, but not awful. The studios skipped out on releasing any heavy hitters on Oscar weekend, so the depressed box office this weekend (especially on Sunday) becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look for about $9 million for the weekend where it will vanish quickly.
Identity Thief
Tied with Snitch for the top film on Friday is the three-week old Identity Thief, earning $4.1 million. On a weekend like this, broad comedy plays the strongest, so a rebound to the top after some Valentine's Day releases shoved it out of the way isn't too surprising. It's down 45% from last Friday, but that's certainly good enough to win the weekend with a still pretty good $13.8 million, as it approaches the $100 million mark.
Notable Holdovers
A Good Day to Die Hard plunges hard, down 61% from last Friday with $2.8 million. Suddenly, there's a good chance that this is the first film in the Die Hard franchise since the original (of course $83 million in 1988 is well over $100 million today) to not break $100 million. As we've stated before, overseas grosses are key to franchises nowadays so it's fine but a repeat of Live Free or Die Hard's performance is completely out of the question. Die Hard 5 will have a second weekend of $8.4 million.
Projected Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)
|
Projected Rank |
Film |
Estimated Gross |
1
|
Identity Thief
|
13.8
|
2
|
Snitch
|
11.8
|
3
|
Safe Haven
|
10.5
|
4
|
Escape From Planet Earth
|
10.1
|
5
|
Dark Skies
|
8.9
|
6
|
A Good Day to Die Hard
|
8.4
|
7
|
Silver Linings Playbook
|
5.2
|
8
|
Warm Bodies
|
5.1
|
9
|
Side Effects
|
3.6
|
10
|
Beautiful Creatures
|
3.2
|