Battle at the Box Office 2/20

With Valentine’s Day behind us, The Vow lost it’s only strategic advantage and dropped to second while Safe House took over the top spot.  Safe House made another $24 million, bringing it up to just over $78 million.  The Vow made just over $23 million over the weekend, bringing it’s total to over $85 million and making it the highest grossing movie for Sony/Screen Gems.  Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance had a pretty disappointing opening with just over $22 million, about half the opening weekend of the original Ghost Rider but the budget for Spirit of Vengeance was smaller so it’s not a complete disaster.  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island had a slight drop off from the previous weekend with $20 million and it should stay pretty solid as it’s winter break for a lot of schools and it’s one of the only family movies currently in theaters.  This Means War rounded out the top 5 with a mediocre $17.5 million, but it’s average for the weird new sub genre of action/romantic comedies like Knight & Day and Killers.  Star Wars Episode 1 had a pretty big drop off from the previous week, 65% to be precise and another $7.8 million.  It’s now the highest grossing Star Wars movie and the fourth highest grossing movie of all time if you include the original take of The Phantom Menace.  The other new release from the weekend, The Secret World of Arrietty, took the ninth place spot with $6.4 million, making it the best stateside debut for a Studio Ghibli movie and pretty solid considering how incredibly niche the audience for it is.