Weekend Box Office - 2/2/14

For the weekend of January 31-February 2, Ride Along has managed to stay on top for the third week in a row.  As we speak, Kevin Hart is furiously being edited into 300: Rise of An Empire, and he will now be Electro's sidekick in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Not really, but he seems ready to take that Melissa McCarthy step into stardom. The next Chris Tucker is here.

As far as new releases go, audiences didn't care about Zac Efron's Awkward Moment or to see how Kate Winslet celebrated Labor Day.

I think The Lego Movie is set up to open huge this Friday, and The Monuments Men will be a strong #2.  Vampire Academy will bomb.  Then next week we have three 1980's remakes opening. About Last Night (starring Kevin Hart) should have the biggest opening, RoboCop will open flat, and I can't really tell if anyone's intrigued by Endless Love. Never saw the 1981 original with Brooke Shields (and young Tom Cruise and James Spader in small parts), and the preview looks pretty generic now.

Seven of the top seventeen movies this weekend are nominated for Best Picture of 2013.

Ride Along is #1

Kevin Hart is the next Chris Tucker.

Critics may have lambasted it, but audiences didn't care.  Ride Along is an unqualified hit. Between this and the 21 Jump Street series, Ice Cube is keeping himself relevant in movies as well.

The Nut Job looks awful, but families who rejected Walking with Dinosaurs and already saw Frozen had to see something.  Meanwhile, Chris Pine still hasn't happened as a movie star yet, try though Paramount might. I wonder if they would have been better off calling it Tom Clancy's Shadow Recruit.

Award buzz has really helped American Hustle. Despite losing some screens, it still managed to improve on its box office from the week before.