Ubiquity, thy name is Kevin Hart.
It’s nearly impossible to escape the comedian/actor’s influence these days. He was in three movies in 2013, including his stand-up flick Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain. He’s scheduled to appear in four more in 2014—beginning with the buddy-cop flick Ride Along. I’m assuming it’ll be just a matter of time before he introduces his own phone app. After all, the guy seems to know what people want.
The latest proof? The aforementioned Ride Along, which (along with a boost from rapper/actor Ice Cube) landed atop the box office with an estimated $41.6 million—a record haul for the month of January. Sure, the flick didn’t play in as many theaters as two other new releases, The Nut Job or Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Did that matter? Apparently not. Its $15,621 per-theater average was by far the highest in the land.
Last week’s champ, Lone Survivor, slipped to second place with $22.1 million, besting The Nut Job for the weekend’s silver medal. But do nut … er, not feel too bad for this squirrely animated flick: It made plenty of cashews itself. Moviegoers shelled out $20.1 million to see The Nut Job—not exactly peanuts—and got a legume up on fellow newcomer, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The newest chapter in Tom Clancy’s seemingly never-ending series of Jack Ryan stories underperformed a bit, earning just $17.2 million for fourth place.
Still, it did better than the week’s fourth wide release, the horror flick Devil’s Due. The fright flick earned just $8.5 million to finish seventh—well behind fifth place Frozen ($12 million) and American Hustle ($10.6 million). One must hope that Fox didn’t take out a great many loans to bring this screamer to theaters. If so, they might need to rename the thing Devil’s Past Due.
Perhaps it might’ve done better if Kevin Hart was in it.
Final figures update: 1. Ride Along, $41.5 million; 2. Lone Survivor, $22.1 million; 3. The Nut Job, $19.4 million; 4. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, $15.5 million; 5. Frozen, $11.8 million; 6. American Hustle, $9.9 million; 7. Devil’s Due, $8.3 million.
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