Lone Survivor tops box office

Emile Hirsch stars as Danny Dietz in Lone Survivor. The movie, which is based on The New York Times best-selling novel, came in first at last weekend’s box office and made $37.8 million.
Emile Hirsch stars as Danny Dietz in Lone Survivor. The movie, which is based on The New York Times best-selling novel, came in first at last weekend’s box office and made $37.8 million.

Lone Survivor, a military drama based on a 2005 Navy SEAL operation in Afghanistan, topped U.S. and Canadian theaters last weekend, collecting $37.8 million for Comcast’s Universal Pictures.

The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg, expanded in wide release after a limited debut Dec. 25. The Legend of Hercules, the only mainstream debut, took in $8.8 million for Lionsgate Entertainment for third place; American Hustle placed fifth with $8 million, Rentrak said Sunday.

Lone Survivor is Universal’s second No. 1 debut with Wahlberg in less than a year after 2 Guns, the buddy cop comedy-thriller, placed first in domestic theaters in August. It marks a good start to the year for Universal, which ranked third in gross domestic sales in 2013, helped by receipts from the latest installments of its Fast & Furious and Despicable Me franchises.

Lone Survivor is based on the memoir of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell about a failed U.S. mission to track down an al-Qaida leader. After a conflict with the Taliban, Luttrellwas the only member of the team who returned. Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana co-star.

The movie, which got a 73 percent positive rating by RottenTomatoes.com, the review aggregator site, was projected to collect $26 million, according to BoxOffice.com.

The movie was competing in a crowded weekend as studios expanded award-nominated films, such as Her with Joaquin Phoenix, into wide release.

Her took in more than $5 million for Warner Bros. It features Phoenix as a writer, Theodore, who develops an emotional relationship with the sultry, disembodied voice of a computer operating system, played by Scarlett Johansson.

The movie, which was No. 11 in the top 20, garnered a 93 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes and was projected to collect $8.5 million.

The film and Phoenix were nominated for Golden Globe awards. Other nominated films that expanded last weekend were Weinstein Co.’s August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Ethan and Joel Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, from CBS Films.

The Legend of Hercules, the only new wide release last weekend, stars Kellan Lutz in the title role as the mythical Greek hero. Betrayed by his stepfather, the King, and exiled and sold into slavery because of a forbidden love, the film follows Hercules as he fights his way back to his rightful kingdom.

The movie received a 3 percent positive rating by RottenTomatoes.com. It was projected to collect $7 million for Lionsgate. In July, Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. are scheduled to release a Hercules movie starring Dwayne Johnson, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Among other returning films, Frozen, the Walt Disney Co. animation about two estranged princesses in an icy world, collected $14.7 million to place second in its eighth weekend after returning to the top of the domestic box office last week. Its U.S. and Canadian sales since release total $317.3 million.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second of three films from works by J.R.R. Tolkien, took in $8.02 million for Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. and MGM Holdings Inc. to place sixth.

MovieStyle, Pages 38 on 01/17/2014

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