January has a new box office champion. After a series of lackluster movies to open the new year, an unlikely new box office leader emerged in the Ice Cube and Kevin Hart buddy cop comedy Ride Along. While the movie looked like an excruciating mess, it was actually a very funny comedy (read my Ride Along review here) and finished its opening weekend box office in style.
Ride Along finished the weekend box office with a $41.2 million take, breaking the old record held by Cloverfield ($40.1 m). It is also the biggest opening original comedy movie (ie. not a sequel) since Ted in 2012.
Lone Survivor got a bigger release this last weekend and finished in second place with $23.2 million while the animated heist movie The Nut Job finished third with $20.6 million, the highest opening weekend box office total for Open Road Films (read my Nut Job review here).
The other two new movies this weekend did not fare as well. The latest chapter in the Jack Ryan saga, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, finished in fourth with $17.2 million while Devil’s Due finished in seventh with $8.5 million.
Here’s the complete weekend box office breakdown:
Weekend Box Office
| Position | Title | Weekend | Total |
| 1 | Ride Along | $41.2M | $41.2M |
| 2 | Lone Survivor | $23.2 | $74.0 |
| 3 | The Nut Job | $20.5 | $20.5 |
| 4 | Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | $17.2 | $17.2 |
| 5 | Frozen | $11.9 | $332.6 |
| 6 | American Hustle | $10.6 | $116.4 |
| 7 | Devil’s Due | $8.5 | $8.5 |
| 8 | August: Osage County | $7.5 | $18.1 |
| 9 | The Wolf of Wall Street | $7.5 | $90.2 |
| 10 | Saving Mr. Banks | $4.1 | $75.3 |
Next week sees one major release in the action-horror movie I, Frankenstein.
Weekend box office estimates courtesy of Box Office Mojo
