The President’s Day 3-day holiday weekend at the box office was led by older audiences on Friday who turned out in strong enough numbers to boost Unknown starring Liam Neeson to the top of the charts.
Unknown’s $6.7 million on Friday was half-a-million good enough to top I Am Number Four’s $6.2 million. The latter, starring Alex Pettyfer and Glee’s Diana Argon and based on the young adult novel of the same name, was widely expected to walk away the top dog through Sunday and the extended Monday frame.
The other newcomer, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, took fourth place with $4.7 million. It will certainly fall short of the previous two Big Momma films that each opened to 3-day hauls of over $25 million.
Last weekend’s holdover Just Go With It snuck into the top three with $5 million on Friday.
The wild card this weekend is last weekend’s surprise hit, Gnomeo and Juliet. It didn’t place in the top five on Friday but has zero competition in the youth demographic and should get a nice spike in ticket sales over the holiday weekend with parents looking for ways to entertain their children.
Check back Sunday for the first weekend box office estimates and again on Monday for the four-day numbers.
