April 1, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc
Looks like moviegoers don’t mind waiting for a blockbuster they wanna see. Despite being delayed just a month before its scheduled release last summer, G.I. Joe: Retaliation resisted Temptation and rejected The Host at the domestic box office over the Easter weekend. An honorable mention for one of our most anticipated movies of 2013, the first G.I. Joe sequel came strapped with 3D (the official reason for its delay) in its opening weekend and blew away the other two new releases.
While Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor debuted strongly in third place, sci-fi romance The Host opened in the same direction another teen-targeted drama, Beautiful Creatures, did a couple months ago when it flopped and debuted just outside of the top five despite being marketed for an entire year as another adaptation of Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.
Reigning champ The Croods, a 3D computer animated family flick, was bumped to second by G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and the previous weekend’s runner-up, action thriller Olympus Has Fallen, fell to fourth place. Rounding out the top five, which you can check out below via BOM, was Oz the Great and Powerful. The 3D Disney fantasy adventure, which had the biggest opening of 2013 so far and the third highest for any March weekend, stayed true to its name by becoming the first movie of the year to crack $200 million.
Next weekend Retaliation looks to repeat against a pair of new releases that most likely won’t put up much of a fight to challenge Joe‘s victory, horror remake/sequel Evil Dead and the 3D re-release of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jurassic Park.
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation — Weekend Gross: $40.5 million — Total Gross: $51.0 million (new)
- The Croods — Weekend Gross: $26.7 million — Total Gross: $88.9 million (#1 last week)
- Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor — Weekend Gross: $21.6 million — Total Gross: $21.6 million (new)
- Olympus Has Fallen — Weekend Gross: $14.1 million — Total Gross: $54.9 million (#2 last week)
- Oz the Great and Powerful — Weekend Gross: $11.7 million — Total Gross: $198.4 million (#3 last week)
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