Valentine’s Day’ courts $52.4m opening weekend
LOS ANGELES, USA (AP) — The star-studded romance Valentine’s Day wooed audiences with a $52.4 million opening weekend, easily grabbing the No 1 spot over the holiday that shares its name, according to studio estimates Sunday.
“To have a movie titled Valentine’s Day on Valentine’s weekend was a no-brainer that absolutely worked,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.
Directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), Valentine’s Day was a celebrity bonanza. The cast includes Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Biel, Shirley MacLaine, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner.
Valentine’s Day distributor Warner Bros estimated its love story will be in the $60 million range after the Presidents Day holiday on Monday. That would break the Presidents Day weekend record of $52 million set by Ghost Rider over the four-day holiday weekend in 2007.
Opening in a tight race for No two were 20th Century Fox’s action fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief with $31.1 million over three days and Universal’s werewolf tale The Wolfman with $30.6 million.
Adapted from the opening book in Rick Riordan’s fantasy series, Percy Jackson follows the adventures of a teen who learns he’s descended from the ancient Greek gods. The cast includes Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Catherine Keener and Rosario Dawson.
The Wolfman stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt in an update of the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr horror classic about an aristocrat who returns to his ancestral home and is bitten by a werewolf.
Coming in fourth for the weekend was 20th Century Fox’s science-fiction sensation Avatar with $22 million, adding to a fortune that already has made it Hollywood’s biggest modern blockbuster. Avatar raised its domestic total to $659.6 million and its worldwide haul to $2.35 billion.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. Valentine’s Day, $52.4 million.
2. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, $31.1 million.
3. The Wolfman, $30.6 million.
4. Avatar, $22 million.
5. Dear John, $15.3 million.
6. The Tooth Fairy, $5.6 million.
7. From Paris With Love, $4.7 million.
8. Edge of Darkness, $4.6 million.
9. Crazy Heart, $4 million.
10. When in Rome, $3.4 million.
