Weekend Box-Office: February 24-26, 2012

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Act of Valor is #1! Navy SEALs! USA! USA! USA!

This weekend some of America’s finest soldiers silently slipped out of the water and knifed evil in the brainstem and popped off a few headshots, all while liberating some dough from your wallet in the process. The Navy SEALs action flick/recruitment film ACT OF VALOR opened to $24.7 million — nearly as much as the Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn movie NAVY SEALS made in total back in 1990 (then again, those guys didn’t kill Bin Laden). That bullet-riddled box office looks even more impressive considering the movie’s reasonable $12M budget, although apparently several times that amount was also spent on advertising.

Serial crossdresser Tyler Perry took second with $16M for GOOD DEEDS, quite a bit less than he tends to make when wearing the wig and muumuu (the last MADEA movie opened to $25M). The weekend’s other new low-budget, low-profile releases were largely ignored — the Amanda Seyfried thriller GONE landed in 9th with $5M (and will live up to its title by next weekend), behind the Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston comedy WANDERLUST in 8th with $6.6M. Both movies opened on approximately the same number of screens as Perry’s latest.

JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND took advantage of school vacations to boost its total with another $13.4M as it continues its slow slide (it’s also made $128M overseas). Last week’s top 2 got knocked under The Rock, although THE VOW crossed the $100M mark as SAFE HOUSE creeps up on it. GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE flamed out with $8.8M (a 60% drop in business from its opening weekend), followed closely by the action romcom THIS MEANS WAR.

Overall, the attention on tonight’s Oscars didn’t seem to have much impact on the box office… although that’s also the case for the contenders, which are all still clashing outside the chart. Purported favorite THE ARTIST has collected $31.8M so far, while THE DESCENDANTS is up to $78.5M.

After two weeks, the 3D re-release of STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE has plunged from the Top 10 like a bisected Sith (while a non-franchise cheapie like CHRONICLE has made more cash). Its $40M performance would seem to call into question whether we’ll see any more of the saga in theaters with a bonus dimension. Pity that George didn’t start with A NEW HOPE in 3D…

Next weekend delivers the candy-colored computer-animated DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX, along with the Todd Phillips-produced amateur-actor raunch-comedy experiment PROJECT X. What March release are you most looking forward to seeing? VOTE HERE!