SALON

Sunday, Feb 24, 2013 8:56 PM UTC

“Identity Thief” tops box office again

The Melissa McCarthy comedy is currently the biggest hit of 2013

By

Topics: Melissa McCarthy, jason bateman, Identity Thief, box office, Hollywood, Movies, aol_on,

(Credit: AP Photo/Universal Pictures)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood’s latest films performed tepidly at the box-office on Oscar weekend, with Melissa McCarthy’s “Identity Thief” returning to the top spot in its third week of release.

The Universal comedy earned $14.1 million on the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, enough to regain the box-office title after losing it last week to 20th Century Fox’s “A Good Day to Die Hard,” the Bruce Willis action sequel.

With a cumulative total of $93.7 million, “Identity Thief” is the biggest hit so far in 2013. Though the film has been badly reviewed by critics, the road trip duo of McCarthy and Jason Bateman has proved popular at the multiplexes, where no other comedy has been around to challenge it.

More than anything, “Identity Thief” has proven the stardom of McCarthy, following her breakout performance in “Bridesmaids.”

“The holding power of a film always gives you an idea of the strength of its concept or its star,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal head of distribution. “In this case, it’s both.”

With the industry gathering for the Oscars on Sunday, it’s always a weekend where moviegoers’ attention goes more to the Academy Awards than the movie theater. For the fifth week in a row, the box office was down as compared to last year’s business

One of the two new films in wide release, Lionsgate’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson action film, “Snitch,” opened with $13 million. That was a decent but not strong showing for “Snitch” in a year where action films have largely fared poorly.

Though “A God Day to Die Hard,” the fourth film in the franchise, led the box office last week, it slid 60 percent in its second week to $10 million. Earlier action films from Arnold Schwarzenegger (“The Last Stand”), Jason Statham (“Parker”) and Sylvester Stallone (“Bullet to the Head”) performed worse.

The other new wide release was the Weinstein Co.’s “Dark Skies,” a PG-13 horror film starring Keri Russell. It debuted with $8.9 million.

The down weekend was unlikely to dampen the Oscar celebration. The nine best picture nominees have largely fared well at the box office. This weekend, eight of them are in the top 21 films.

For the first time since the category’s number of nominees was extended in 2009, six of the nominees grossed more than $100 million domestically: “Argo,” “Lincoln,” “Les Miserables,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Django Unchained” and “Life of Pi.” “Zero Dark Thirty” missed narrowly with $91.6 million going into the Oscars.

“It’s one of the best performing groups of nominees I’ve ever seen,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “Great night for Hollywood, tough day at the box office.”

A box-office bump could follow for Sunday’s big winners, though any benefit might be better found overseas, where some of the films are still expanding. The best picture favorite, Ben Affleck’s Iran rescue thriller “Argo,” is already out on DVD in North America.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Identity Thief,” $14 million.

2. “Snitch,” $ 13 million.

3. “Escape From Planet Earth,” $11 million.

4. “Safe Haven,” $10.6 million.

5. “A Good Day to Die Hard,” $10 million.

6. “Dark Skies,” $8.9 million.

7. “Silver Linings Playbook,” $6.1 million.

8. “Warm Bodies,” $4.8 million.

9. “Side Effects,” $3.6 million.

10. “Beautiful Creatures,” $3.4 million.

More Jake Coyle.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 2 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations