Fi-fi-ho-hum. The box office for Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer was robust enough to win the weekend, but could hardly be described as “giant” in the eyes of distributing studio Warner Bros.
 
Singer’s re-imagining of the classic children’s fairy tale brought in roughly $28 million playing on 2D, 3D and IMAX screens over the weekend. It was the only film opening over the past few days to have a halfway decent frame (as you’ll see when we report on every other movie’s weekend). But that number isn’t going to go a long way towards helping Warner recover an estimated $195M production budget on the costly Giant Slayer. 
 
And now Jack has giant competition breathing down its neck in the form of Oz the Great and Powerful, which targets the same family demographic and opens in theaters on March 8. We’ll see how Singer’s fairy tale holds once Disney drops its own imaginative fable into theaters in a few days. 
 
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman have the surprise hit of the season. Identity Thief continues to perform very well, adding an additional $9.7M to its totals. In doing so, it became the first movie this year to cross the $100M mark. No wonder talks of a sequel have grown stronger in recent days. 
 
Thief had no trouble staying ahead of two new releases this weekend, both of which got off to slow starts. The college comedy 21 and Over couldn’t capitalize on its pseudo-Hangover buzz, posting a $9M opening weekend.

And the unnecessary sequel The Last Exorcism Part II failed to lure fans of the original back to theaters. Where the debut movie in the series opened to an impressive $20.3M in August 2010, Part II barely opened to half of that number, banking an estimated $8M … good for fourth place. Smart on the Last Exorcism producers to keep costs way, way down, though. With a reported $5M budget, it’s very possible Part II will turn a healthy profit when all is said and done.  
 
Here’s the full Top 10 list for the weekend:
 
MOVIE / WEEKEND / TOTAL
 
1. Jack the Giant Slayer, $28M
 
2. Identity Thief, $9.7M, $107.4M 
 
3. 21 and Over, $9M
 
4. The Last Exorcism Part II, $8M 
 
5. Snitch, $7.7M, $24.4M
 
6. Safe Haven, $6.3M, $57M
 
7. Escape from Planet Earth, $6.2M, $43.2M
 
8. Silver Linings Playbook, $5.9M, $115.5M 
 
9. A Good Day to Die Hard, $4.5M, $59.6M
 
10. Dark Skies, $3.5M, $13.4M

 
 
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