The Lego Movie demolished the competition this weekend, earning $69 million to blow past expectations and become the second best February debut ever (behind just Passion of the Christ). The movie was helped by spectacular reviews and received an excellent "A" Cinemascore from audiences, which were 60% over the age of 18. This will continue to play strongly for a while, as finally a true alternative to Frozen is on the market for families. In second place, George Clooney's The Monuments Men also came in above expectations, with a solid $22 million and a "B+" rating from the audience. It puts it in the adult drama category of movies like Argo and Captain Phillips, with 75% of this crowd over age 35, but with no awards buzz it will probably not earn as much as those two in the end. Still, it's Clooney's biggest opening for a movie he directed.
Ride Along came in third, with $9 million and a $105 million total, good for the Kevin Hart vehicle, which is set to launch him as a potentially major box office attraction for the several other movies he has coming out later this year. In fourth place was Frozen, which pulled in nearly $7 million and has finally passed Despicable Me 2's total of $368 million to become the biggest animated film of 2013 (worldwide, it's sitting at $900 million and set to cross $1 billion before it finishes its run). Finally, That Awkward Moment came in fifth place for a $16 million total.
Top 5:
- The Lego Movie- $69.11 million
- The Monuments Men- $22.7 million
- Ride Along- $9.4 million
- Frozen- $6.91 million
- That Awkward Moment- $5.54 million
Vampire Academy, the other new release this weekend, completely bombed with just $4.1 million, so it looks like that potential franchise is a total non-starter. Next week there are several new debuts for Valentine's Day looking to capitalize on the date night holiday, including Kevin Hart's new movie About Last Night and the drama Endless Love, plus the strange fantasy film A Winter's Tale and the remake of RoboCop. Come back next week, where we'll see if any of those can take down The Lego Movie (I'm betting not).
