Valentine's Day landing on the weekend assisted a battery of appealing holdovers during President's Day weekend. He's Just Not That Into You ranked second with $22.3 million for a $57.8 million in eleven days, putting it ahead of Failure to Launch through the same point among past similar movies. However, its 30 percent drop Friday-to-Sunday was among the least impressive holds for the weekend, showing the strength of the market.
Continuing to pack them in for the third weekend in a row, Taken made $21.8 million for the four-day weekend, easing eight percent Friday-to-Sunday. The action thriller surpassed the final gross of Man on Fire with $80.5 million in 18 days and now ranks second among kidnapping dramas, behind Ransom, one movie that it has no chance of catching in terms of attendance.
Coraline conjured $18.9 million over the four-day weekend, off 12 percent Friday-to-Sunday, and one has to go back to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas to find a smaller second weekend drop for a stop-motion feature. Coraline's 3D gross was down only seven percent, accounting for an estimated $14 million of the four-day weekend at 1,060 sites. The tally stands at $39.1 million in eleven days, around 72 percent of which coming from 3D presentations.
The portliest release of 2009 thus far, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, inched up one percent Friday-to-Sunday and grossed $13.6 million for the four-day weekend. The bumbling action comedy crossed the $100 million mark on Friday the 13th, the first movie originally released in January ever to hit that milestone, and its total now stands at $112.4 million in 32 days. Another bumbler, The Pink Panther 2, paled compared to its predecessor, falling 27 percent Friday-to-Sunday for $10.8 million four-day weekend. The comedy sequel's tally is $24.1 million in eleven days or around half the attendance of the first movie at the same point.
Slumdog Millionaire held steady with an $8.7 million four-day weekend, outplaying its fellow Academy Award nominees by a wide margin, and its total climbed to $88.1 million. Push rounded out the Top Ten with $8 million, off 32 percent Friday-to-Sunday for $20.4 million in eleven days, but it was Gran Torino that was built to last. Clint Eastwood's action drama was close behind Push with $7.4 million, easing nine percent Friday-to-Sunday. With $129.6 million in the till, it pulled ahead of Escape from Alcatraz to rank tenth among Eastwood's movies adjusted for ticket price inflation.
Meanwhile, for its titular holiday, a few more drops were squeezed out of My Bloody Valentine 3-D beyond the norm for a horror movie. Despite being down to 532 theaters and facing off with Friday the 13th (2009), the slasher remake dipped 16 percent Friday-to-Sunday and grossed $1.7 million over the four-day weekend for a $50.7 million tally in 32 days.
