Box Office: ‘I Am Number Four’ can’t even say it’s ‘Number Two’

Alex Pettyfer, your career is calling.

“I Am Number Four” was supposed to propel Pettyfer, who also toplines next month’s “Beastly,” into the Zac Efron level of young teen heartthrobs, but the DreamWorks thriller severely underperformed at the box office.  The D.J. Caruso directed flick found just $22.6 million four the four-day President’s day weekend coming in third behind “Gnomeo and Juliet.” That Elton John word of mouth wonder had a minimal drop from its debut weekend to land in second with another $24.8 million and $55.8 million to date.  The movie Disney almost dumped could easily hit $100 million domestically.

As for Pettyfer, “Four’s” performance and the expected weak debut of “Beastly” should make many studios pause on his recent demands for a big paycheck for any upcoming roles.  At this point, their is still no ruiling on whether Pettyfer is the next big thing or not. A lot is riding on the performance of his next film, the thriller “Now” with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried this October.

Willing the weekend was noneother than Liam Neeson’s “Unknown” with an impressive $25.6 million.  The thriller will have problems matching Neeson’s success with “Taken,” but its appeal to an older demo could easly get it past the $70 million mark.

Fourth place went to Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston’s “Just Go With it.” The comedy had a good hold for another $21.7 million and $64.2 million after just 11 days.  “Go With It” could hit Sandler’s magic $100 million mark, but it’s going to be close.

Even with disastrous reviews, “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son” claimed the fifth spot with $19 million.  With a negative cost of just $32 million, the New Regency/20th Century Fox release could eventually get into the black.

This upcoming weekend’s new releases include “Hall Pass” and “Drive Angry 3D.”
 

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