There’s no denying the power of the romantic comedy, even if Valentine’s Day, the movie, is as manufactured as the holiday itself. The all-star film grossed an estimated $52.4 million over three days and is likely to top $60 million by the time the President’s Day holiday weekend is over. Its high-grossing debut—the best ever for President’s Day—coupled with solid numbers from the other two new wide releases put 2010′s holiday frame into the record books with an estimated total gross of $193 million.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians, based on the popular kids’ book series by author Rick Riordan, earned an estimated $31.1 million for the three days while the R-rated horror remake Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro, grossed an estimated $30.6 million for a per-theater average of $9,497. Avatar in its 9th weekend of release grossed another $22 million, falling only 4 percent from its previous weekend and putting its total cume close to $660 million.
Last weekend’s winner, Dear John, dropped into fifth place for the frame. Losing 50 percent of its value, primarily off of Valentine’s Day competition, the film earned $15.3 million. Its total stands at $53 million. These strong numbers from female-driven films have Hollywood noticing that women are strong drivers of box office. Expect a rash of female-starring films to be green lit in the near future as the industry realizes (yet again) that women love going to the movies. What a revelation! Check back tomorrow for complete four-day box-office numbers.
Photo credit: Ron Batzdorff
Gross
Holy cow, women watch movies!? What a concept!
LOL! Yeah, shocking. Sadly, Hollywood is run by men, and these successes, like MAMMA MIA!, THE BLIND SIDE, JULIE & JULIA and others, will only lead to soundbites and headlines, as opposed to actual female-centric projects being greenlit.
“The Bild Side” wasn’t female centric….
I’m tired of RCs! There’s more to life than that, I wanna see my fellow females doing bad stuff, like robbing banks, killing people, etc. My mother doesn’t even like Rom Coms, and I’m tried of girls buying into the stereotypes. It’s like men care about everything, but women only care about love. It makes me sick.
m.
I Liked the blind side, but it was so female centric it belonged on lifetime.
I noticed that when “New Moon” made 150 mil in one weekend…
Yeah they watch crappy movies.
yeah, because Transformers 2 was the best movie of 2009, right?
I have to say this: Valentine’s Day was actually a great movie. Yes it was formulaic but there were some nice little surprises here and there. Btw I am a guy and I do not think that this film deserved an F from the stupid ew reviewer who probably is pissed because she has no date for today! People don’t judge a movie until you have actually seen it!!!
Brandon, thank-you for sharing that. I was reading all these bad reviews for Valentine’s Day, and I was getting worried. I’m going to see it tonight with some friends, and I’ll do just as you suggest: see it for myself before I judge it.
But the reason why we judge movies before we see them is that some of us have limited budgets, and we can’t afford to waste $10 on crap if we could have seen another much better movie for the same price. And quite frankly, anything with Jessica Alba in it makes me skeptical of its good-ness.
I agree with Brandon, this movie is awesome! Don’t listen to the people who judge it, see it for yourself…it’s worth your money. Also, Sandradee, Jessica Alba was good in the movie so don’t worry! definitely go see Valentine’s Day!
Jessica Alba was mediocre at the most! I mean if anyone was good in the movie, it was Anne Hathaway with her variety of accents!
I don’t think it was worthy of an F but IMO, it’s not worthy a grade higher than a C-. It’s a fun movie to see with a bunch of friends, but I could have waited to see it on DVD to save some cash.
While I was able to enjoy VALENTINE’S DAY on its own terms as tried-and-true product straight from the film industry (all while worshipping the divine presence and performance of Jessica Biel on the big screen, as she is my favorite actress), I have to agree with several comments about the state of films nowadays. More and more people need a film that’s more daring and fresh in its concept and even more bold and unrestrained in its execution. In short, we need more films that actually look and sound like they’re the works of visionaries rather than product intended to turn in a profit to keep the industry on its knees.
I pity all the guys forced to go out and watch the crap that V-day surely was.
You should pity the fathers (like myself) that had to watch the crap that was Percy Jackson this weekend.
It was like a Sy Fy Channel movie with better special effects, not to mention being a Harry Potter rip-off. Instead of wizards, the kids are demigods. Instead of a school, they have a camp. Etc. Etc.
Yeah, but my girl took me to see The wolfman. Now that’s a valentine’s movie!
weekend and putting its total cume close to $660 million………EW needs to find someone to spell “come” correctly…..lol
sorry spelled correctly
haha..go back to school kendis
Kendis, I think “cume” is short for “cumulative,” as in cumulative total.
Yes. I read too fast. They were right. Thanks.
English teachers.I missed my class today?
I want to know what happened to accurate critics? Valentine’s Day is NOT the worst movie ever, is it going to change your life? Of course not. But it is fun, adorable, cute and sweet, all perfect for Valentine’s Day weekend. It kept me entertained for a full 2 hours, what more do critics want?
I totally agree with you. I really enjoyed “Valentine’s Day”! It was funny, romantic, and I thought well writen and acted. I had no problem keeping up with the storylines. Pretty much everyone else I know who saw it think weekend enjoyed it, both girls and guys.
People now adore “Love, Actually” and forget that it, too, got not so hot reviews when it was released.
In truth, Love, Actually actually got pretty solid reviews.
Um, I remember Love Actually getting fairly decent reviews. Certainly better than the scathing ones V Day’s gotten.
It could have used a storyline that wasn’t predictable down to the wire, it could have made me care more about the characters, it could have had at least one main couple that didn’t magically get together at the end, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner literally just made out whenever they were on screen (I’m sure the tweens loved it, but gimme a break)…just to name a few. It had its moments and laughs, but overall, I see where the critics are coming from.
And what exactly is an “accurate” critic? One who agrees with your personal opinion? That’s what these reviews are – that person’s opinion. Just because they don’t agree with you doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
Percy and wolfman boxoffice are really good.can someone please tell me the difference between sound editing and sound mixing?also art direction and cinematography?
art direction and cinematography? are u serious? one is the actual design of the sets of the movie while the other is the actual filming of the movie.
How about sound editing and sound mixing?
Editing is the actual cutting of the sound track just as the film editor cuts together the different scenes. Sound mixing refers to the setting of the levels of the various sounds you hear. Is the gun shot in the same room or down the block? Does the car engine noise come from the right or the left? This is a very simple explanation, but accurate.
I don’t get why critics were so hard on this movie. Yeah, it’s not an “intelligent” movie by any stretch of the imagination, but very few romantic comedies are. I just went to be entertained and it really was not THAT bad. Maybe you have to go in with low expectations?
Women may love going to movies, but the movies they’re going to are horrible. A future filled with carbon copies of “Valentine’s Day” and “Dear John”? Not looking forward to that. To be fair, though, I find most movies geared toward men (Transformers, anyone?) to be equally horrible. What about a movie that’s just a good story? I think both men and women would appreciate that one.
“Transformers” is geared to teenage males. Real men go to see “Inglorious Basterds” & “The Hurt Locker”
Excellent examples, Barry! Recently saw and loved ‘em both.
I am a woman and I have to say that I loved both The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds.
To be fair, neither real men nor real women went to see The Hurt Locker in theaters.
Are you a real men?
Yeah Percy!
To those complaining why more female-centric movies dont get green-lit, it because businesspersons and executives dont want to commit tens of millions of dollars to a project geared at narrow demographic. Females 13-40. Those movies also have sparce marketability when it comes to merchandising. Finally, for every successful female-led movie, there are 20 failures. EW has another article showing the 25 rom-com cliches that need to go away, and they’re particularly stabbing at “Valentine’s Day” for incorporating most of them. I agree that more generic storylines that aren’t rom-coms could be developed for women, but as long as the most recognizable female actresses are type-cast to those roles, it’ll be hard to make a big sell for them tent-polling a big budget movie. Julia Roberts, probably the all time top grossing actress, rarely venture outside of rom-coms. Her few movies where she tried to get a little more serious or actiony were absolute failures.
I really fail to see how the 13-40 female demographic is any more or less narrow than its counterpart in male demographics. I’m sure that you’ll respond that women will also go to Transformer type movies while men would be hard pressed to see a movie like valentines day on their own. However, most of the movies geared towards women have much lower budgets and as such how many more multiples of profitability. Look at the twilight movies and the budget vs. grosses. Or any of the movies mentioned above: Dear John, Julia and Julia, It’s Complicated, The Blindside, etc. It seems to me that men in Hollywood aren’t up to the challenge or just have a problem with numbers.
“Her few movies where she tried to get a little more serious or actiony were absolute failures.”
Erin Brockovich was an absolute failure?
Duplicity was an absolute failure
Pelican Brief and Sleeping with the Enemy… technically suspense thrillers grossed 100 mil in her early days… they were big grossers for the time.
Yes, because New Moon making almost $150 million in one weekend is horrible…right. What do you think the main demographic was? Females, ranging from kids to adults.
It would be cool if this sudden revelation lead Hollywood to not just make female-driven films, but GOOD female-driven films. Just a thought.
Also, Percy Jackson was a horribly bland movie. No heart or spark in it that would ever make me want to see another one in the series. Although that gal who played Annabeth was hot. Those burning blue eyes
)
She’s even hotter on “White Collar” where she plays Kate.
Completely disagree. I thought it was zippy, fun, involving, and overall brilliantly done.
As a stand-alone movie, it was cute–nice visuals, okay plot. As an adaptation, it was awful. They changed a LOT of the story, needlessly.
wow women are big players in the movies? I’m shocked!!!!!
yeah . . . this was expected. And I, for one am happy about it!
Wow I’m shocked at how well all of the movies did this weekend (except for Dear John, which dropped 50%). And especially Avatar of course, which hung in there spectacularly with such a small drop.