By Ryan Parsons | Image property of 20th Century Fox.
Jumper
While I took advantage of the Valentine's Day holiday by scouring the bars Thursday night for single ladies, the studios found the holiday to be a great one for early releases. Coming out ahead, Fox's Jumper came in at number one for the 'four but soon to be five' day weekend.
Box Office Winner: Jumper
Doug Liman's latest attempt at action, Jumper, took the number one spot over the weekend with an estimated $33.8 million. To achieve such numbers was no small feat, as Jumper was forced to go up against other new wide releases including Step Up 2 the Streets, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Definitely, Maybe.
Step Up 2 surprised Hollywood by taking the number two spot with $26.3 million. Strong, yes, but on par with the debut of the original Step Up.
The Spiderwick Chronicles wasn't too far behind with $21.4 million over the four-day. Paramount still has got a ways to go with this latest fantastical adaptation, however, as it cost $90 million to produce.
Even with Ryan Reynolds and an impressive cast of leading ladies, Definitely, Maybe failed to outperform McConaughey and Hudson's Fool's Gold; allowing the romantic adventure to hold onto the number four spot.
Though Jumper performed well against the competition, the film failed to beat out last year's President's Day box office leader Ghost Rider, which grossed $51 million over the four-day weekend.
I guess we should consider it coincidence that both these box office winners were more or less bashed by the critics.
Even still, Fox is still hoping to make a franchise out of Jumper.
"People obviously enjoyed it. When you have a successful movie, you want to built on it and have sequels," Fox senior VP of distribution Bert Livingston said. "I'm sure you think about that with every movie that's an original. This is an original."
Add to Heffee!
