Bad is apparently very good for Denzel Washington.
“Safe House,” in which Washington plays a CIA agent gone bad, won the weekend domestic box office, although not by much, besting “The Vow” $24 million to $23.6 million (and those are only estimates — things could change).
Still, the trend for Washington seems undeniable. His action movies usually do good business — in the $60-90 million range — but the only time he’s broken the $100 million mark in the past decade was in “American Gangster,” where he played, duh, an American gangster. And his last Oscar came from playing a crooked cop in “Training Day.”
“Safe House” has already made over $78 million in 10 days and will breeze past $100 million come March. So crime pays for Denzel.
Of course, “American Gangster” featured another star, Russell Crowe. And “Safe House” also stars Ryan Reynolds. In fact, Reynolds has more screen time than Denzel. But somehow Washington is getting all the credit. Maybe it has something to do with President’s Day.
Anyway, my weekend predictions were both right and wrong. Four movies did exceed $20 million at the box office (barely) and things were up overall (that’s where I was wrong), by about 11 percent; but “Ghost Rider” tanked, along with the week’s other new entries (where I was right).
“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” made $22 million, which is actually less than half of what the first “Ghost Rider” movie made five years ago on the same weekend. That shows how far Nic Cage’s credibility has fallen, as well as the regard people have for the original.
The weekend numbers:
“Safe House” — $24 million, $78.3 cumulative
“The Vow” — $23.6 million, $85.5 million
“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” — $22 million, $22 million
“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” – $20 million, $53.2 million
“This Means War” — $17.5 million, $19.1 million
“Phantom Menace 3-D” — $7.8 million, $33.7 million
“Chronicle” — $7.5 million, $50.9 million
“The Woman in Black” — $6.6 million, $45.2 million
“The Secret World of Arrietty” — $6.4 million, $6.4 million
“The Grey” — $3 million, $47.9 million
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