Fox’s A Good Day to Die Hard starring Bruce Willis encountered a worthy adversary in Relativity’s Safe Haven at the North American box office on Friday. An unexpected neck-and-neck race is now underway to see if a sappy love story or blasting terrorists claims the President’s Day box office crown.
Friday wasn’t as kind to A Good Day to Die Hard as it dropped $1 million in business from Valentine’s Day on Thursday with $7.2 million in ticket sales and $15.4 million overall. The decline in interest heading into the weekend despite an aggressive marketing campaign by Fox has lowered expectations from Thursday through Monday from $50 million plus to $40 million or less. The abysmal 17% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes is starting to be reflected at the ticket counter, though a “B+” CinemaScore is better than those reviews might suggest.
Safe Haven ticket sales continue to astound and narrowly lost to A Good Day to Die Hard on Friday with $7.15 million, a mere $50,000 difference. Overall ticket sales for Safe Haven now stand at $16 million with estimates for the extended holiday weekend now being raised to around $30 million.
Newcomer and lightly advertised Escape from Planet Earth landed in fourth place with $3.7 million. Look for the family-oriented animated film to pick up steam through the holiday weekend and wrap the Friday through Monday frame somewhere between $15 and $20 million.
Warm Bodies continued its march toward $50 million with another $2.6 million in business Friday. It’s now at $43.8 million overall and should achieve the $50 million milestone by close of business Monday, an achievement the other young adult film, Beautiful Creatures, will not celebrate. The new arrival earned a meager $2.3 million Friday and $4.8 million through two days, squashing any hope of the multi-book series scoring a second film.
Stop back Sunday for the Friday through Sunday box office results to see if A Good Day to Die Hard was able to hold off Safe Haven.
