The other major debut this week was something of a sleeper. The new Steven Soderbergh thriller Side Effects failed to generate any mania. The film only took in $9 million over the weekend. It's interesting, because the film was really sold on the presence of two stars past their prime (Jude Law, Catherine Zeta Jones), a rising star (Rooney Mara), and 2012's biggest new box office phenomenon Channing Tatum. To be fair to Tatum, he's in the movie for about eight minutes, so you really can't hang the failure of this one on him. Mara hasn't headlined a feature since the financially disappointing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Her career trajectory might have to be moved from 'rising' to 'holding pattern'. For whatever reasons, North American audiences seemed uninterested in the film.
Last week's number one Warm Bodies dropped one spot to number two with a strong 45% week over week drop. In its second week the zom-com made another $11 million.
Silver Linings Playbook continues to be the award season box office darling. Another $6 million in the bank for the Weinsteins' Oscar hopeful, which bodes well for its awards chances. At the beginning of the Oscar season all the talk was on Lincoln, and it's been shifting over to Argo after a handful of various awards and accolades. But there's been an undercurrent of chatter suggesting that Lincoln and Argo are splitting the older Academy voters and that Silver Linings Playbook could sweep in with a surprise win. I don't know if I'm confident enough to place a bet on that logic, but it makes for some interesting water cooler conversations.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters rounds out the top five, though the film is going to struggle to get past $50 million total in the U.S. With inflated ticket prices for 3D, that has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment.
Next week brings us a trio of new wide releases. For the Valentine's Day romantics, you have your choice of two love stories. There's Safe Haven, for those of you who never tire of Nicholas Sparks' annual love story, and for you Twilight fans who like their love stories served with a lot of supernatural douche-baggery, there's the terrible looking Beautiful Creatures. For those of us who equate either of those two films to cruel and unusual punishment, there is respite in the form of Bruce Willis who proves that you can't keep an aging action icon down with A Good Day to Die Hard.
Here's your top films for North America...
1. Identity Thief
Weekend Estimate: $36 million
2. Warm Bodies
Weekend Estimate: $11 million; $36 million total
3. Side Effects
Weekend Estimate: $9 million
4. Silver Linings Playbook
Weekend Estimate: $6 million; $90 million total
5. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Weekend Estimate: $5 million; $43 million total
Anghus Houvouras