Chris Pratt’s plastic figure is really happy you’re still seeing “The Lego Movie.”
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Many commentators said it was a bad idea — that to remake “RoboCop,” the ultra-violent 1987 Paul Verhoeven classic about an android police officer, was playing with fire. And it turns out the many were right. The new, expensive remake, failed to topple last week’s box office winner “The Lego Movie” from the top of the charts.
Over the four-day President’s Dayt weekend, the toy toon — a critical and commercial hit based on a line of interlocking plastic bricks — fell only 8% from last weekend, adding another $63.5 million to its haul. The film now grossed $143.8 million, with many more to come.
“RoboCop” didn’t even score the second spot. That honor went to “About Last Night,” the raunchy remake of the raunchy 1986 rom-com. Based — very, very loosely — on David Mamet’s play “Sexual Perversity on Chicago,” it has Kevin Hart joinMichael Ealy, Regina Hall and Joy Bryant as Los Angelinos struggling with intimacy issues and talking dirty. Itgrossed $28.5 million, making it the second hit Hart has enjoyed in 2014, following the buddy cop comedy “Ride Along.” (Speaking of which, that film ranked number six for the weekend, making $10 million for a $117.4 million cume.)
Despite opening last Wednesday and thus having a two day head start, the “RoboCop” remake netted only $25.6 million, clearing it for the bronze. The sci-fi action film cost around $100 million to make, and tried to distinguish itself by not repeating the original story — and, perhaps its biggest mis-step, keeping to a PG-13 rating. This makes it the second Verhoeven remake, after “Total Recall” in 2012, to bomb. Perhaps execs should take note.
The other Valentine’s Day newbies fared less well than “About Last Night.” “Endless Love,” another remake, this time of the 1981 Brooke Shields romance, bowed to $15.1 million. That was almost double the other love-centered debut, “Winter’s Tale,” which adapted Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel, with Colin Farrell as an age-defying thief who courts a dying woman and talks to a flying horse.
Elsewhere on the charts, “The Monuments Men,” George Clooney’s WWII romp about the pursuit to save Europe’s art from the Nazis, held in there, grossing another $18 million. Starring Clooney, Matt Damon and Bill Murray, it has now grossed $46.7 million. And after a whopping 13 weeks, people are still seeing Disney’s “Frozen.” The animated film wrangled $8.7 million for a freakish $378.2 million total.
Follow Matt Prigge on Twitter@mattprigge
