“The Lego Movie” animated comedy keeps strong lead at box office

PanARMENIAN.Net - Like a plastic block locked firmly into place, “The Lego Movie” is showing tremendous hold. In its third weekend, the Warner Bros. toon can expect a secure win with about $33 million, Variety said.

Meeting this mark, “Lego Movie” — co-financed and co-produced by Village Roadshow — will close the weekend with a domestic cume close to $185 million in just 17 days. On Wednesday, Feb 19 it crossed $200 million worldwide.

This puts a pair of young male-skewing actioners in a difficult position.

Relativity’s “3 Days to Kill,” co-produced and co-financed by EuropaCorp, won’t make a killing despite landing in second. It took $4 million Friday, and is on track to earn about $12 million this weekend. There’s also heat on Sony’s “Pompeii,” which will be lucky to hit $10 million through Sunday after its $3.4 million Friday bow.

Intuitively, these films are dividing the same audience, both being PG-13 action films, to their mutual detriment. Though full demo information won’t be available until tomorrow, an early analysis of “Pompeii” skews only 52% male, interestingly indicating a rather balanced audience that is either significant or the mere result of the level of eye candy alluded to in Peter Debruge’s review.

As these low-landing openers lead the pack, a crowded slate of holdovers carrying over from Valentine’s Day weekend doesn’t stand a chance.

Sony’s “Robocop” leapt passed former leader “About Last Night” to take fourth place this frame with an anticipated $8.5 million or so. The raunchy romancer from Sony-Screen Gems is more likely to fall in sixth with about $7.5 million.

Squeezed between the two, and representing a strong if unimpressive weekend for Sony, “The Monuments Men” should earn about $8 million in its third weekend.