Easter weekend moviegoers appear to be putting most of their eggs in Paramount’s basket as “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” looks to top the holiday frame with a domestic cume close to $50 million.
The actioner got a jump-start on Friday’s openers by bowing Thursday, and earning $10.5 million. Add to that $15.5 million from Friday, and the film is well on track to both win the domestic marketplace and gross upwards of $100 million worldwide with overseas coin from 53 day-and-date markets.
“Retaliation,” a coproduction from Par, MGM and Skydance from a Hasbro property, was budgeted at $130 million. Domestically, the film is slightly behind predecessor “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” which earned $54.7 million in 2009. But internationally the actioner appears to be outpacing the original, which opened to $90.4 million worldwide.
Last weekend, Fox-DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods” took first with a similar sum, and it appears the toon will place second this frame over newcomers from Lionsgate and Open Road. It earned $10.7 million Friday and is likely to land in the mid-$20 million range through Sunday.
In eight days in release, “Croods” has cumed $72.8 million, and in a holiday weekend and spring break window largely devoid of family fare, pic should continue to play well.
Right on “Croods'” heels, Lionsgate’s Tyler Perry-produced “Temptation” earned $9.4 million Friday. Pic looks to be headed for a three-day haul of around $22 million, which would make it the biggest bow for a Perry film that the multihyphenate did not appear in.
Newcomer “The Host” from Open Road took in $5.5 million Friday for a fourth-place start, though the sci-fi romancer is expected to fall to fifth behind FilmDistrict’s “Olympus Has Fallen” before Monday.
“Host” is based on “Twilight” author Stephanie Miller’s novel and targets a similar aud as the “Twilight” franchise, and insiders expect better mid-week business as many middle and high school students take advantage of their spring break vacations.
