Friday Report: Busy Bieber
Justin Bieber's fan base translated to a big opening day for the 16-year-old's biography/3D concert movie, and thanks to Bieber, Just Go With It and Gnomeo and Juliet, 2011 saw its first $40-million-plus Friday, proving yet again how product-driven the industry is. Overall business, though, was still down from the same Friday last year, which boasted the triple play of Valentine's Day, The Wolfman and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never packed an estimated $12.4 million on approximately 4,200 screens at 3,105 locations, making two and half times what the Jonas Brothers' 3D concert movie pulled in its opening day. Bieber also exceeded the first day grosses of the Hannah Montana 3D concert ($8.7 million) and Michael Jackson's This Is It ($7.4 million), though both Montana and Jonas played at far fewer locations than Bieber. Bieber's run included 2,516 3D venues, and they accounted for an estimated 85 percent of business.

Just Go With It was below par for an Adam Sandler movie, grossing an estimated $9.7 million on around 4,900 screens at 3,548 locations. Sandler's last romantic-themed comedy, 50 First Dates, notched $10.1 million on its Feb. 2004 opening day, or the equivalent of nearly $13 million adjusted for ticket price inflation. Just Go With It also earned less than the last February release featuring Jennifer Aniston, He's Just Not That Into You, which made $10.4 million.

Given his rabid fan base, Bieber is likely to be extremely front-loaded, which means that Just Go With It has a chance of winning the weekend. Just Go With It, though, will likely dominate Monday, Valentine's Day, as well as the rest of the weekdays.

The first family movie since Christmas, Gnomeo and Juliet, landed with a solid estimated $6.1 million on close to 3,900 screens at 2,994 locations, and the disparity between it and Bieber and Just Go With It will shrink dramatically as the weekend progresses. Gnomeo's first day was bigger than Yogi Bear's $4.6 million, and the garden gnome comedy is shaping up to have one of the best openings in recent memory for a minor animated movie, debuting to over two and half times the business of the last one, Alpha and Omega. 3D presentations accounted for nearly 60 percent of Gnomeo's gross.

The fourth new nationwide release, The Eagle, landed in fourth with a meager estimated $2.75 million at 2,296 single-screen locations. While that was better than The Last Legion and Pathfinder among comparable titles, it was less than Season of the Witch's $3.8 million earlier this year.

It was business as usual for the holdovers. The King's Speech saw the smallest decline by far, easing 20 percent Friday-to-Friday to an estimated $1.9 million and lifting its sum to $88.3 million in 78 days. Last weekend's releases, The Roommate and Sanctum, each tumbled around 60 percent. Roommate bagged an estimated $2.6 million for a $20.3 million eight-day haul, while Sanctum collected an estimated $1.4 million for a $13.8 million tally in eight days.

Related Chart

Grosses for Friday, Feb. 11, 2011