Weekend Box Office: Yo, Joe!

Easter weekend has taught us that Cobra will rise again, that Tyler Perry’s temptations are hard to resist, and that Stephenie Meyer is less popular than we thought she was.

With a bigger and better cast than its predecessor, ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation‘ was able to firmly claim the top spot this weekend. On 3,719 screens, the sequel to 2009’s ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra‘ pulled in $42.1 million. Adding the extra day provided by its Thursday release, ‘Retaliation’ has earned $51.7 million domestically. Those numbers may not be as high as the $54.7 million three-day opening that ‘Rise of the Cobra’ scored, but they’re pretty good considering how bad the first installment was. Thank heaven the studio decided to add more Channing Tatum and give the movie a 3D makeover.

The Croods‘ held over fairly well with just a 39% decline in attendance from last week. The DreamWorks family flick earned another $26.5 million, giving the $135 million movie a ten-day cumulative total of $88.6 million.

Tyler Perry’s Temptation‘ reinvigorated Perry Power after a few slouches. The director’s steamy and scandalous new drama debuted to $22.3 million and has become Perry’s ninth film to open north of $20 million. This also marks the best opening for a Perry film that wasn’t a sequel or a Madea title. His other recent dramas haven’t done well, but ‘Temptation’ has succeeded in tempting his audience back.

After the embarrassingly awful success of the ‘Twilight’ movies, I expected Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host‘ to work box office wonders this weekend. As in: “I wonder how anyone could consider this entertaining.” However, the teen alien-invasion drama couldn’t hold off week-old ‘Olympus Has Fallen‘ or three-week-old ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful‘. ‘The Host’ only wrangled $11 million from 3,202 locations, just enough to debut in the #6 spot.

In limited release, Ryan Gosling’s reteaming with ‘Blue Valentine‘ director Derek Cianfrance proved to be a good thing. ‘The Place Beyond the Pines‘ pulled in $270,000 from just four locations. Its $67,500 per-screen average is strong enough that Focus will expand the platform release starting this Friday.

Top 10:

1. ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ (Paramount) – $41,200,000

2. ‘The Croods’ (Fox) – $26,500,000

3. ‘Tyler Perry’s Temptation’ (Lionsgate) – $22,300,000

4. ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ (FilmDistrict) – $14,000,000

5. ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’ (Buena Vista) – $11,605,000

6. ‘The Host’ (Open Road) – $11,002,000

7. ‘The Call’ (TriStar) – $4,800,000

8. ‘Admission’ (Focus) – $3,253,000

9. ‘Spring Breakers’ (A24) – $2,758,000

10. ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ (Warner Bros.) – $1,300,000

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