Weekend Projections: Ride Along Sets January Opening Record
January 19, 2014
What could have been a close run thing at the box office this weekend has turned into a romp to victory for Ride Along, with the comedy set to break Cloverfield's record for biggest opening weekend in January with estimated three-day $41.2 million. The performance is all the more impressive for being delivered from just 2,663 theaters, and marks Universal's third consecutive MLK weekend win, following Mama last year and Contraband in 2012. With the studio's holdover, Lone Survivor, holding on to second place with $23.2 million in its second weekend the other three wide openers range from 3rd to 6th place in the charts.
Doing a bit better than expected, and grabbing 3rd spot, is The Nut Job with $20.55 million projected by Open Road. It has a decent chance of claiming second over the four-day weekend thanks to relatively larger family audiences on Monday.
The weekend's major disappointment is Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, with Paramount projecting $17.2 million for the three-day weekend. The film has a long way to go to recoup its $60 million reported production budget, although international markets may treat it more kindly.
Horror flick Devil's Due is the final wide opener this weekend, and will post a modest $9.5 million. That's not a disaster for Fox, thanks to low production and marketing costs, but it's not much to write home about either.
This weekend also gives us a first look at the bounces enjoyed by Oscar nominees, and 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Dallas Buyers Club, Captain Phillips and August: Osage County will all increase their takes this weekend. The Wolf of Wall Street and Her will, slightly surprisingly, be down from last weekend.
Bruce Nash bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, Lone Survivor, Ride Along, August: Osage County, 12 Years a Slave, The Nut Job, Her