Image Credit: Bob Mahoney
The biggest hit of 2013, Universal’s $35 million comedy Identity Thief, returned to the top spot at the box office in its third weekend. The Melissa McCarthy/Jason Bateman vehicle dipped 41 percent to $14.1 million, lifting its total to a robust $93.7 million. By this time next week, Identity Thief will have swiped over $100 million domestically, which bodes very well for Melissa McCarthy’s upcoming Sandra Bullock collaboration The Heat, due out June 28.
Were Identity Thief not holding so well, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s latest action thriller Snitch could have won the weekend. As things stand, though, it will have to settle for second place with a not-half-bad $13 million. Snitch‘s debut can’t hold a candle to Johnson’s recent efforts in ensemble sequels like Fast Five ($86.2 million opening) and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island ($27.3 million opening), but it opened much better than his last effort as a leading action star, Faster, which started with $8.5 million in 2010.
Distributor Summit, who acquired the film from Exclusive Media and Participant, did not disclose a budget for the film when reached, though IMDb estimates it cost $35 million to produce. Snitch earned a middling “B” CinemaScore grade from audiences, which were 53 percent male and 57 percent above the age of 30.
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