Weekend Box Office: February 8-10

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Identity Thief - $36.5 million

2.  Warm Bodies - $11.5 million

3.  Side Effects - $10 million

4.  Silver Linings Playbook - $6.9 million

5.  Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - $5.7 million

6.  Mama - $4.3 million

7.  Zero Dark Thirty - $4 million

8.  Argo - $2.5 million

9.  Django Unchained - $2.2 million

10.  Bullet to the Head - $1.9 million

Despite a blizzard wreaking havoc in the Northeast, there was no stopping Identity Thief this weekend, as the comedy earned an estimated $36.5 million.  That's a great start - the biggest opening of 2013 so far - not to mention a perfect response to the oh-so-irrelevant critic Rex Reed, who took some childish jabs at star Melissa McCarthy's weight in his review of the film.  Although, all anyone needs to do is watch Bridesmaids to be reminded how awesome McCarthy is.

Warm Bodies, which opened big last weekend with $20 million, held up very well in its second weekend, earning another $11.5 million.  With new episodes of The Walking Dead starting tonight on AMC, it looks no one can get enought of zombies at the moment.  This weekend's other new release, Side Effects, from the apparently retiring Steven Soderbergh, also did pretty well with $10 million.

The Oscar nominees are still taking a few spots in the top ten, with Silver Linings Playbook doing the best in fourth place with $6.9 million.  It should break the $100 million mark by next weekend.  Frontrunner Argo returned to the top ten (it was #18 last week) with $2.5 million.  Zero Dark Thirty added another $4 million, while Django Unchained earned $2.2 million.

The weekend's other new release was more of big-screen ad for the upcoming blu-ray release of Top Gun, but the 80s classic did manage to earn $1.9 million at 3D IMAX locations.  There was probably no need for a Top Gun re-release, but with Hansel & Gretel stinking up the IMAX theaters for the last few weeks, we'll take it, right? 

Speaking of 80s classics, next weekend sees the return of Bruce Willis as John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard, which is coming out on Thursday for some reason (hey, nothing says Valentine's Day...).  Joining it will be Beautiful Creatures, the supernatural love story that isn't Twilight, the latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, and the animated alien comedy Escape from Planet Earth.