Saturday box-office update:
Perhaps as a subgenre, the well-worn police buddy comedy is just getting a little too old for this.
Warner Bros.' "Cop Out" debuted Friday to $6 million at the domestic box office, good enough to match midling pre-release estimates but not big enough to surpass a dark R-rated Martin Scorsese movie that had already been in theaters for a week.
Amid a lackluster overall box office, impacted by yet another round of crippling East Coast storms and essentially flat with the low-tide $105 million taken in on the same weekend last year, Scorsese's nut-house-themed "Shutter Island" again finished on top, declining a respectable 53 percent from its premiere a week earlier while grossing $6.7 million Friday, according to studio estimates.
The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, is on pace to finish the weekend with over $22 million. If it sticks to that pace, it would also match its $75 million production budget in cumulative domestic gross.
As for the Kevin Smith-directed "Cop Out," which pairs Bruce Willis with Tracy Morgan in what critics feel is a rather by-the-numbers bicker-fest, it's tracking to finish the weekend with nearly $17 million in domestic gross, right around where Warner thought the film would come in. The movie was shot with a modest budget somewhere in the $30 million range, according to studio officials.
Finishing in third place Friday was Overture's George A. Romero horror remake "The Crazies," which grossed $5.9 million at 2,476 locations. Starring Timothy Olyphant as -- you guessed it -- a small-town sheriff, dealing with a citizenry infected by a "28 Days Later" type flu (treatment: take two pitchforks and call me in the morning), the well-reviewed movie is on pace to surpass $15 milion for the weekend, which would be on the high end of its pre-release expectations.
In fourth place on its final Friday before it has to give most of its 3D screens over to Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," Fox's "Avatar" took in another $3.1 million. It's pacing to finish the weekend with another $13 million or so, which would push its record domestic gross passed the $700 million mark.
Here's a look at the top 10 at Friday's North American box office:
“Shutter Island” ($6.7m)
"Cop Out” ($6.0m)
“The Crazies” ($5.9m)
“Avatar” ($3.1m)
“Valentine's Day” ($2.9m)
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” ($2.4m)
“Dear John” ($1.6m)
“The Wolfman” ($1.6m)
“The Tooth Fairy” ($730,000)
“Crazy Heart” ($610,00)
Thursday preview:
The dudes carry the news when it comes to box-office success this weekend.
The three R-rated films projected to finish atop the domestic market this weekend are all significantly reliant on the young-male demo -- with Paramount holdover “Shutter Island” expected to narrowly beat newbies “Cop Out” from Warner Bros. and “The Crazies” from Overture.
“We have three movies this weekend basically going after the same audience,” said Warner distribution chief Dan Fellman, who’s studio will debut the Kevin Smith-directed buddy comedy “Cop Out” in about 3,150 North American locations Friday.
