Weekend box office: The Lego Movie and Monuments Men beat Ride Along
Although the naysayers said it was just going to be an hour long movie to sell Legos, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had other plans and made a movie that was loved by critics. Audiences seemed to have liked it as well as the film will come close to pulling in $70 million at the weekend box office. Lord and Miller did a great job with the animated CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and the live action 21 JUMP STREET, so it’s no surprise they were able to do it again with THE LEGO MOVIE. Meanwhile, it seems the date change didn’t do too much damage to George Clooney’s THE MONUMENTS MEN (click the link to read our review) as the film is also doing pretty well, coming close to $20 million. Unlike THE LEGO MOVIE, Clooney’s directorial effort has been blasted by critics, shedding some light on why the film was moved out of the Oscar race. But it’s also proof that you can put that many big names in one film and still do alright at the weekend box office.
Next week sees the release of the ROBOCOP remake, which will be an interesting experiment at the box office. The people that love the original seem to be against the remake and everyone else just seems disinterested. Although I haven’t seen much advertising for it, I would keep an eye out on ABOUT LAST NIGHT with Kevin Hart. If RIDE ALONG can do as well as it has, there’s no reason ABOUT LAST NIGHT can’t capitalize on some of that success. But my money is on THE LEGO MOVIE to repeat atop the weekend box office next week. With good word of mouth and a high rewatchability factor, it should do well for a while. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. The Lego Movie $69.1m
2. Monuments Men $22.1m
3. Ride Along $9.3m
4. Frozen $6.9m
5. Lone Survivor $5.7m
6. That Awkward Moment $5.5m
7. The Vampire Academy $3.9m
8. The Nut Job $3.2m
9. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit $3.1m
10. Labor Day $3.1m
(Deadline)
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