Oh, those Joes. The president may have disavowed this super-elite, sharp-dressed cadre of soldiers. But the American public didn’t desert the G.I. Joe franchise, proving once again that buying a movie ticket is half the battle.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation muscled its way to an estimated $41.2 million opening to claim the weekend’s box office crown. It was a solid, if not spectacular opening: Retaliation didn’t have quite the firepower that G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra did ($51.7 million in 2009). But still, boxofficemojo.com tells us that it’s the second-highest opening for an Easter weekend ever (behind, of all things, Clash of the Titans). So there’s that.
The onslaught of the Joes knocked The Croods down to second place with $26.5 million. Still, mourn not for DreamWorks’ clever comedy: In two weeks, the animated movie has banked $88.6 million.
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor proved too enticing for Perry’s ever-loyal audience to miss. With the $22.3 million, third-place opening, Perry cemented his reputation as Hollywood’s Mr. Reliability: His relatively low-budget flicks have opened to $20 million or more nine times. Now, in these days when The Avengers opens to more than $200 million, that may not sound that impressive, but only two other directors can equal that track record, according to boxofficemojo: Robert Zemeckis (who’s done Forrest Gump and the Back to the Future movies, among others) and Steven Spielberg (you might’ve heard of him).
Two holdovers claimed the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Olympus Has Fallen earned $14 million to best Oz the Great and Powerful for fourth place. Oz settled for $11.6 million and fifth.
The Host—a film based on a book by Twilight scribe Stephenie Meyer—proved that fantastical teen romances don’t always sell tickets. It earned just $11 million its opening week to finish sixth.
Final figures update: 1. G.I. Joe: Retaliation, $40.5 million; 2. The Croods, $26.7 million; 3. Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, $21.6 million; 4. Olympus Has Fallen, $14.1 million; 5. Oz the Great and Powerful, $11.7 million; 6. The Host, $10.6 million.
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