Box Office: 'Ride Along' and 'Frozen' Sing-Along Fight for No. 1
Credit: Universal Pictures
It was a hot weekend at the box office, as two films were duking it out for the top spot. Ride Along and the sing-along version of Disney's Frozen beat out all other competition this weekend, including newcomers Labor Day and That Awkward Moment. But only one could take the No. 1 spot...
In a fairly close race, Ride Along appears to have won the weekend, raking in $12.3 million to make this the third weekend in a row at No. 1 for the buddy cop comedy. Starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, the film has now reached a domestic total of $93 million.
Ride Along staved off stiff competition from the newly-released sing-along version of Disney's Frozen, which opened in more than 2,000 theaters this weekend, giving the animated blockbuster a second wind at the box office. The film brought in $9.3 million, with at least $2 million of that total coming from sing-along showings. This brings the film's worldwide gross to $864.4 million between its North American total of $360 million and international gross of $504.4 million. The weekend was pretty damn great for Frozen, as the film won Best Feature at the 41st Annual Annie Awards on Saturday night, among other prizes (including Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production, and an award for Josh Gad's performance as Olaf the snowman).
Frozen just barely eked out second place over newcomer That Awkward Moment, the comedy starring Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan. The movie raked in $9 million, which is below the $10-$12 million expectations. But the film has already recouped its modest $8 million budget, so this isn't exactly a failure or anything. However, fellow newcomer Labor Day wasn't as lucky. Jason Reitman's drama, starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, was a bigger underperformer than That Awkward Moment, grossing only $5.3 million for the No. 7 spot. The film cost $18 million to make, and while the film admittedly skewed towards older audiences, these debut numbers have to be disappointing for Reitman and Paramount Pictures.
In other developments, Lone Survivor continues to thunder along, surpassing the $100 million mark in North America in the wake of this weekend's $7.2 million gross. The Universal film finished in No. 5, outranking Oscar frontrunners American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, and action thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Credit: Walt Disney Animation Studios
Here's the full top 10 for the weekend:
- Ride Along ($12.3 million)
- Frozen ($9.3 million)
- That Awkward Moment ($9 million)
- The Nut Job ($7.6 million)
- Lone Survivor ($7.2 million)
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ($5.4 million)
- Labor Day ($5.3 million)
- American Hustle ($4.3 million)
- The Wolf of Wall Street ($3.6 million)
- I, Frankenstein ($3.5 million)