After crushing Cobra on the big screen, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” also crushed all competition at the box office on Friday, while this weekend’s other wide openers — Tyler Perry’s “Temptation” and the sci-fi soap “The Host” were beaten by kid-friendly holdover “The Croods.”
The John M. Chu-directed “G.I. Joe” racked up $15.5 million on Friday, powered by stars such as Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum.
The sequel to the 2009 original opened Wednesday at midnight, and has so far made $26 million. It’s expected to gross around $50 million for the weekend, and will likely top $100 million worldwide in its opening frame.
Its 2009 predecessor, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” debuted to $54.7 million, but benefitted from a summer release. “Retaliation” was originally set for release last June, but was delayed in order to post-convert it to 3D and to re-fashion Tatum’s role.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Dreamworks Animation toon “The Croods” was able to hold off two newcomers in order to hang on to the No. 2 spot from last week. It earned another $10.7 million, bringing its domestic total to a dreamy $72.8 million.
The film’s continuing success stole some of the thunder from both “Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” and “The Host.”
The former debuted to a solid $9.4 million, while the latter scared up a decent $5.5 million on its opening day.
“The Host” is based on the book by “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer and stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons and Jake Abel. It will likely pick up around $13 million over the weekend, while “Temptation” will easily top it and should earn somewhere in the $21 million – $22 million range.
“Olympus Has Fallen,” starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, rounded out the top five, chasing down $4.7 million. Its two-week total stands at $45.5 million.
Look for complete weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix.