Weekend Box Office: *Crickets*
On the weekend when the industry held its biggest celebration of itself—capping a months-long season of smaller celebrations of itself—the American public opted to honor Hollywood by not showing up to any of its movies. A truly dismal February ended with Identity Thief, a critically pilloried comedy, crept back up to #1 over all comers, despite falling 41% from the previous week. The film’s $14 million weekend put it close to the magic $100 million mark, but for the year’s highest grossing movie so far, the figure still seems awfully tepid. The Dwayne Johnson vehicle Snitch came closest to knocking it off the perch, earning a lackluster $13 million for its schizophrenic mix of earnest social drama and ‘splosion-filled action movie. The not-screened-for-critics horror movie Dark Skies opened all the way back in sixth place with $8.85 million, a number that looks better against its thrifty $3.5 million budget, most of which was spent on the Weinstein brothers’ various heart and stress medications.