Weekend Box Office: A Good Weekend to ‘Die Hard’

Domestically, President’s Day Weekend was just OK for John McClane. But in both the movie and at the box office, he kicked more ass overseas than ever.

Although ‘A Good Day to Die Hard‘ failed to meet weekend expectations domestically, it still owned the Top 10 and did a lot of destruction in 63 international markets. The sequel earned $29.3 million over the four-day weekend, bringing its stateside five-day run to $37.5 million. That’s $11 million down from the summer 2007 five-day totals for ‘Live Free or Die Hard‘. While ‘A Good Day’ debuted overseas last weekend, this weekend’s expansion marked international strength. To date, the movie has earned $80.1 million internationally.

The other three major new releases were unable to pass ‘Identity Thief‘ in its second weekend. The Jason Bateman / Melissa McCarthy comedy only slipped 19% and pulled in another $27.8 million. The $35 million movie has now grossed $75 million.

After an $8 million Valentine’s Day opening on Thursday, the latest Nicholas Sparks romance ‘Safe Haven‘ outperformed expectations. With a $25.2 million weekend and $34 million five-day totals, the movie landed $10 million above studio expectations. Never underestimate sappy movies. Millions of people somehow mistake them for entertainment.

After months without a new animated kids’ flick, ‘Escape from Planet Earth‘ actually warranted a decent fourth place $21 million debut. It looks like the Weinsteins have finally found a model that works: Open their crappy animated movies after a drought of similar fare.

Beautiful Creatures‘ wasn’t able to beat out the 9.7% decline of ‘Warm Bodies’ or land in the Top 5. The $60 million film only managed to earn $8.9 million over the weekend and $11.4 million over its five-day run. Meanwhile, ‘Warm Bodies‘ earned another $10.2 million, which brings its 17-day total to $51.4 million.

The weekend numbers for the expansion of ‘A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III‘ haven’t yet been reported.

Top 10:

1. ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ (Fox) – $29,300,000

2. ‘Identity Thief’ (Universal) – $27,884,000

3. ‘Safe Haven’ (Relativity) – $25,170,000

4. ‘Escape from Planet Earth’ (Weinstein) – $21,042,000

5. ‘Warm Bodies’ (Summit) – $10,250,000

6. ‘Beautiful Creatures’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,925,000

7. ‘Side Effects’ (Open Road) – $7,800,000

8. ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (Weinstein) – $7,630,000

9. ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ (Paramount) – $4,180,000

10. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (Sony) – $3,600,000

9 comments

  1. Drew

    February is looking way better for Luke! He has ‘Safe Haven’ and ‘Identity Thief’. Both have tiny budgets, and will make more money than ‘A Good Day to Eat Shit’ (Domestically, at least). ‘Escape from Planet Earth, (100 million budget) ‘Side Effects, and to a lesser extent ‘Die Hard 5’ will cripple Aaron.

    ‘Identity Thief’ and ‘Safe Haven’, alone, are enough to seal the deal for Luke.

  2. Drew

    Hmm, those are all good points. To me, it still looks like the accumulated budget of all of your films will be enough to sink you. Luke is absolutely raking it in with ‘Identity Thief’ and ‘Safe Haven’.

    • We’ll see. I have a running total spreadsheet going. I will say that February is turning out to be a razor-thin margin. My budget total certainly dwarfs Luke’s, that’s for sure.

      It’ll be a photo finish.

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