As we all know, 2012 was the year C-Tates broke, with the hardest twerkin man in show business scoring huge hits with The Vow ($196 million worldwide), 21 Jump Street ($202 million), and Magic Mike ($167 million). Who would’ve thought 21 Jump Street would get a sequel? People liked him so much that Paramount pushed the release of GI Joe: Retaliation back almost a year just five weeks before its originally-scheduled opening. Well guess what? It made $41.2 million over the weekend and Paramount has already ordered the sequel. He is risen.
The G.I. Joe sequel grossed an estimated $41.2 million this weekend, which ranks as the second-highest Easter debut ever behind 2010’s Clash of the Titans ($61.2 million). Including Thursday, the movie has earned $51.7 million; that’s a bit below G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra‘s $54.7 million three-day start in August 2009. For its three major stars, this is also a potent opening: it ranks third-highest for Channing Tatum, second-highest for The Rock, and it’s remarkably the top debut ever for a Bruce Willis movie.
I don’t what part of that last sentence is more incredible, that Bruce Willis’s highest-opening movie is GI Joe 2, or that Channing Tatum already has two higher-opening movies than Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis! That’s incredible. He’s been a movie star since C-Tates was sagging his diapers.
Elsewhere, Tyler Perry continued to print money with Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, starring Kim Kardashian, which earned $22.3 million. Can you believe that’s not a joke? I’m still not convinced.
It’s also Perry’s ninth movie ever to open over $20 million; the only two other directors who have that many $20 million debuts are Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. [BoxOfficeMojo]
1. G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Paramount) NEW – Cinemascore: A-; Metacritic score: 42
$41,200,000 in 3,719 theaters; PSA (per screen average): $11,078; Cumulative: $51,700,000
2. The Croods (20th Century-Fox) Week 2; Last weekend: #1
$26,500,000 (-39%) in 4,065 theaters (+19); PSA: $6,519; Cumulative: $88,618,000
3. Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (Lionsgate) NEW – Cinemascore: A-; Metacritic score: 30
$22,300,000 in 2,047 theaters; PSA: $10,894; Cumulative: $22,300,000
4. Olympus Has Fallen (FilmDistrict) Week 2; Last weekend: #2
$14,000,000 (-54%) in 3,106 theaters (+8); PSA: $4,507; Cumulative: $54,743,000
5. Oz: The Great and Powerful (Buena Vista) Week 4; Last weekend: #3
$11,605,000 (-46%) in 3,324 theaters (-481); PSA: $3,491; Cumulative: $198,278,000
6. The Host (Open Road) NEW – Cinemascore: B-; Metacritic score: 30
$11,020,000 in 3,202 theaters; PSA: $3,436; Cumulative: $11,020,000
7. The Call (Sony) Week 3; Last weekend: #4
$4,800,000 (-46%) in 2,439 theaters (-68); PSA: $1,968; Cumulative: $39,480,000
8. Admission (Focus) Week 2; Last weekend: #5
$3,253,000 (-47%) in 2,161 theaters (+1); PSA: $1,505; Cumulative: $11,759,000
9. Spring Breakers (A24) Week 3; Last weekend: #6
$2,758,000 (-43%) in 1,379 theaters (+125); PSA: $2,000; Cumulative: $10,100,000
10. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (Warner Bros.) Week 3; Last weekend: #7
$1,300,000 (-70%) in 1,575 theaters (-1,585); PSA: $825; Cumulative: $20,580,000 [via Indiewire]
You’ll notice that Stephenie Meyer failed to muster the kind of loyalty that Tyler Perry enjoys, as The Host, the adaptation of her first non-Twilight book, opened with a disappointing sixth place. The audience was 78 percent female. It’s no wonder, they left out the most important ingredient in Twilight. No one cares about boring white people falling in love unless there’s some ethnic temptation. Without it, you’ve just got a bunch of bad actors standing around looking like they have heartburn.