America keeps seeing ‘Identity Thief’: McCarthy box office champ once more
Caption: Universal Pictures
Comedy “Identity Thief” snatched the weekend box office title in the United States and Canada during its third weekend in theaters, narrowly beating new action movie “Snitch” as Hollywood focused on Sunday evening’s Academy Awards ceremony.
“Identity Thief” starring Melissa McCarthy grabbed $14 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters.
“Snitch” featuring Dwayne Johnson finished close behind with $13 million. The animated offering “Escape From Planet Earth” took in $11 million to finish third in its second week in theaters.
The win was the second for “Identity Thief,” which led the charts when it debuted February 8 and finished in second place a week ago. The adult comedy has collected $93.7 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters to date.
Moviegoing was typically slow for an Oscars weekend. Total sales for all films ran slightly over $1.4 billion, a 6.6 percent drop from the same weekend last year, according to box office tracker Hollywood.com.
The weekend’s other new movie, low-budget horror flick “Dark Skies,” collected $8.9 million to debut in sixth place. The movie stars Keri Russell as a mother working to protect her children from alien invaders.
Last weekend’s leader, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” dropped to fifth place. The fifth movie in the Bruce Willis action franchise took in $10 million this weekend.
