THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) is barely even being challenged by the newcomers this weekend, and it will easily reign supreme over the multiplexes for its 3rd win in a row. Preliminary numbers at Variety and Deadline have Lego at $7M+ on Friday, and while that’s down from last Friday’s $12.8M (all holdovers will be sharply down from last Friday because of Valentine’s Day, especially the romances), Lego will zoom with family audiences on Saturday, and should end up with a $30M weekend, putting it over $180M at the US box office.
Nothing else is close, but 3 DAYS TO KILL (Relativity) leads the rest with $4M+ on Friday, for what should be an $11M weekend, not the Liam Neeson territory the action vehicle was aiming for.
That looks good, though, compared to the much more expensive POMPEII (TriStar/FilmDistrict), with only $3M+ on Friday (despite 3D ticket prices) and a weekend that might not reach $9M. Pompeii will have to make all its money overseas to have any hope of faring better than the residents of that doomed city.
Holdovers ROBOCOP (Sony/MGM) and MONUMENTS MEN (Sony) are closely packed just below Pompeii at $2.5M or so on Friday (down 50% or more from last week), and either or both could move up in the standings if word-of-mouth sinks Pompeii even worse than it currently appears. Just behind those is yet another Sony title, ABOUT LAST NIGHT (Screen Gems/Sony), with $2.2M on Friday (down more than 80% from Valentine’s Day, although that will flatten out a bit over the rest of the weekend) and headed for a $7M weekend. Last week’s openings hit bottom with ENDLESS LOVE (Universal) and WINTER’S TALE (Warners), both also down 80% from last Friday to $1.5M and $700K respectively and perhaps $4M/$2M for the weekend.
Meanwhile, FROZEN (Disney) is still earning money in its last pre-Oscar weekend, with $1M on Friday and probably $4M for the weekend, which will put it just below $385M at the US box office.
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