Weekend Box Office Report: January 10-12, 2014

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Lone Survivor shoots to the top!

Audiences itching for a gunfight this weekend found just what they wanted, putting the unflinching LONE SURVIVOR at the top of the box office with $38.5 million!

The wide release of Peter Berg's ripping action movie drew substantially more attention than the director's previous and far more expensive (and presumably fictional) military exercise BATTLESHIP, which opened in May of 2012 with only $25.5 million. (Berg supposedly agreed to make that movie for Universal if they'd release LONE SURVIVOR in return.)

The brutal true account of a 2005 Navy SEAL mission gone awry (based on Marcus Luttrell's book of the same name) already almost made back its reported $40 million production cost and gained a decent reaction from critics (73% on Rotten Tomatoes), while paying crowds proudly saluted the soldiers with an 'A+' CinemaScore.

(Side note: To all those who are or have been in uniform, thank you for your service!)

In second place, Disney's FROZEN still hasn't begun to thaw, bringing another $15 million as it crossed $300 million domestically this week. Martin Scorsese's manic money movie THE WOLF OF WALL STREET moved up a slot this weekend to third with $9 million.  

The performance of the week's only brand new release wasn't particularly godlike — THE LEGEND OF HERCULES opened in fourth with $8.6 million. Led by beefstick Kellan Lutz as the titular demigod, the $70 million swords-and-sandals fantasy from former blockbuster director Renny Harlin (who hasn't had a hit since 1999's DEEP BLUE SEA) was ravaged by critics (a pitiful 2% on Rotten Tomatoes), though audiences were a bit more charitable with a 'B-' CinemaScore.

AMERICAN HUSTLE stuck in fifth (the third R-rated release in the Top 5) with another $8.6 million as it hoodwinked its way past the $100 million mark, making it filmmaker David O. Russell's second-biggest movie after SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. We'll find out soon enough if it has similar awards triumphs.

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG dipped to sixth with $8 million, and the A-list drama AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY added 900 screens and came in seventh with $7.3 million (and the second-highest per-screen average in the Top 10). SAVING MR. BANKS is still saving some bank, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES is a fading apparition in ninth with $6.3 million (a drop of 65% from its second-place opening last week), while ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES stays classy in tenth.

Outside the chart, Spike Jonze's techromance HER expanded to 1700 screens and just missed the list with $5.4 million, while GRUDGE MATCH and THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY waved goodbye to the Top 10.

This week also saw THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE surpass IRON MAN 3 as the highest-grossing release of 2013. It may not prompt a paradigm shift, but with CATCHING FIRE and GRAVITY (and FROZEN, if you want to include animated characters) among the Top 10 biggest successes of the year, studio execs are going to have a hard time using that old "female-fronted movies don't make money" excuse when considering projects.

Next weekend offers several new wide releases, including Chris Pine taking over as Tom Clancy's CIA analyst in JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, thieving CG-animated critters in THE NUT JOB, more low-budget supernatural horror in DEVIL'S DUE, and stone-faced cop Ice Cube taking comedian Kevin Hart for a RIDE ALONG.

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