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.

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Bruce Willis as  is presumably past retirement age for a freelance vigilante. His mission in “A Good Day to Die Hard” is a surprise: he didn’t fly to Moscow to battle nasty Russians. He went to reconnect with his estranged son, who mysteriously turned up in a Moscow prison.

Far from the black sheep screw-up we’re led to assume, McClane’s son Jack (Jai Courtney) has been working as a CIA operative. He just cut off his whole family without explanation, that’s all! There’s a daddy-shaped hole in his heart because Pops missed out on his childhood to chase bad guys. This movie’s entire plot could have been prevented by a few backyard games of catch. (Oddly, McClane’s daughter harbored no cliché resentment, as she cheerfully drove Dad to the airport.)

So Jack’s arrest was a fake-out to let him testify against some Russian politician. But this irks the Bad Guys, who bomb the courthouse before the trial and set off the remaining 80-odd minutes of racket, which are mostly comprised of chase scenes and tenderness between the Senior and Junior McClanes.

The father-son reconciliation was so mushy that it practically dripped off the screen. The McClanes profess mutual love while cradling automatic assault rifles. They’d have to blow up all the property in the world to get away with that sort of cheese.

Not that there’s much else to get emotionally invested in: the villains are a bore, and their motives are tedious. This time around, McClane’s catchphrase is a dad joke uttered whenever the plot thickens: “I’m supposed to be on vacation!”

Ugh. Isn’t it so embarrassing when your dad tries to fight your international security battles for you?

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‘A Good Day to Die Hard’
Genre: Action
Director: John Moore
Stars: Bruce Willis
Rating: R
Grade: 2/5
The original “Die Hard” is an ‘80s classic. A near perfect mix of action, humor and Bruce Willis’s charisma, it was a claustrophobic thriller set inside an office building. Since then the movies have slowly opened up the action, becoming more generic with every added location. The new film sees Willis in Russia joining forces with his CIA operative son (Jai Courtney) on a dangerous mission involving a government whistleblower and WMDs.
It has exotic locations and a body count that would take a mathematician to calculate, but none of the wit or style of the first film. In this case, more is less.

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Bruce Willis admits he used to have a drinking problem, leading to a brief foray into complete sobriety, but he’s past all that now. “I had been sober [for a while],” he tells GQ magazine, explaining that he eased off his personal prohibition “once I realized that I wasn’t going to run myself off the pier of life with alcohol, drinking vodka out of the bottle every day.” As for his current drinking habits? “I have wine now, mostly when I eat,” he says. Of course, Willis is still facing the unstoppable march of time. “Nobody want to hear this bad news, but we’re all dying on some level,” he says. “I’m going to try to keep this machine moving forward as much as possible and not have to think about the eventuality of becoming more frail and less able to do the work. I know that I’m not going into politics. That’s not an option.”

Taylor Swift had more exes on her mind at the Grammys than just Harry Styles, whom she mocked during her performance of “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” The lovelorn singer also made a point of avoiding ex-boyfriend John Mayer and his current squeeze, Katy Perry, despite being seated near each other, according to Us Weekly. And as for reports that Grammys organizers were ordered to keep Swift away from rival Carrie Underwood? “Taylor feels Carrie is always rude to her, so she steers clear of her,” a source tells the magazine, pointing out that “after Carrie performed, Taylor didn’t stand. Everyone else did.”

Lady Gaga has postponed her next four concerts because a joint inflammation condition called synovitis has left her unable to walk, she revealed on Twitter. “I’ve been hiding a show injury and chronic pain for sometime now. Over the past month it has worsened,” the singer tweeted. “I’ve been praying it would heal. I hid it from my staff, I didn’t want to disappoint my amazing fans. However, after last night’s performance I could not walk and still can’t.” Makeup dates for the canceled shows — in Chicago, Detroit and Hamilton, Ontario — have yet to be announced.

Steve Martin reportedly became a dad for the first time when his 41-year-old wife, Anne Stringfield, “had a baby” in December, according to the New York Post, but the real story is that the 67-year-old comedian has managed to keep the story under wraps. “How they kept it a secret nobody knows,” a source says. “Steve’s very private. They are thrilled. They worked hard to have the baby.” The pair was recently spotted with a baby in Los Angeles.

When reports went out late last month that Alec Baldwin‘s wife, Hilaria Thomas, is pregnant, his reps shot them down, saying, “When and if they have news they want to share, they will share it.” Well, now they have news they want to share. “My wife is pregnant,” the “30 Rock” star posted to Twitter this week. “To celebrate the announcement, she is teaching yoga.”

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