Looks like it's a good weekend for Ice Cube and Kevin Hart as "Ride Along" tops box-office charts for the third time. And it's Super Bowl weekend!
The buddy comedy "Ride Along" has led the U.S. and Canadian box office collecting $12.3 million in sales for Universal Pictures.
"It's an incredibly strong movie that appeals to its audience," said Phil Contrino, chief analyst for BoxOffice.com, in a telephone interview. "This movie should move Kevin Hart up the 'A' list pretty fast."
At second comes Disney's unstoppable animated hit "Frozen" sing-along, playing in more than 2,000 cinemas that sparked a renewed wave of interest in the film, which was up slightly from last weekend, grossing $9.3 million from a total of 2,754 locations, including $2.2 million from the sing-along shows.It ended the weekend with a massive worldwide haul of $864.4 million surpassing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in both domestic total ($360 million) and international ($504.4 million). Also over the weekend, the movie swept the Annie Awards, including taking home best feature.
"That Awkward Moment" bags third place which $9 million in ticket sales. Marketed heavily for women who are less interested in watching Super Bowl. It received generally lackluster reviews felling short to the industry's $12 million forecast. Only 22 of 99 reviewers gave it a "fresh," or positive, rating, according to the website Rotten Tomatoes.
Studios relied on counter-programming on a weekend when many Americans are focused on the National Football League's annual championship game. "Ride Along" withstood the challenge of both "Frozen" and "That Awkward Moment".
In the film, Hart's character is a security guard who agrees to join his girlfriend's brother, an Atlanta cop played by Ice Cube, on a 24-hour patrol to prove he's worthy of marrying his sister and joining the force.
