Box Office: 'Safe Haven' sneaks by 'A Good Day to Die Hard' on Valentine's Day

Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel in "Safe Haven."

Credit: Relativity Media

Are you a fan of Breaking News?

Sign up to get the latest updates instantly.

Sign Up ► More Instant Alert Options ►

Be the first to know - sign up now to get an instant e-mail alert
whenever something big happens in Movies, TV or Music

Close

Or

SIGN UP with Facebook

Sign Up ►

More Instant Alert Options ►

It was a battle of badly reviewed movies on Valentine's Day, but moviegoers looking for an escape didn't seem to care what the nation's critics thought.  Relativity Media's "Safe Haven" had a strong start with the latest Nicholas Sparks creating grossing $8.8 million.  "Haven" looks like it will be a huge hit for Relativity as it cost just $28 million and could gross more than that in its first four days.

Right behind "Haven" in second was the fifth "Die Hard" film, "A Good Day To Die Hard," pulling in an impressive $8.2 million.  With a reported budget of $92 million, "A Good Day" should win the holiday weekend with anywhere from $35-40 million four the five-day. 20th Century Fox is really counting on "Die Hard 5" to perform overseas which is pretty obvious by how much the growing Russian market is integrated in "A Good Day's" storyline.

Last weekend's champ, "Identity Thief," dropped to no. 3 with another $5.3 million and $47.2 million in just seven days. "Thief" looks like it has an excellent chance of grossing $100 million plus when all is said and done.

Romantic zombie comedy "Warm Bodies" received a nice jump on Thursday finding another $2.55 million for $41.2 million in its first two weeks. The Summit Entertainment release looks like it may top out around $60 million.  Considering a good chunk of its $32 million budget was financed through international sales it should be a very nice moneymaker for Summit-Lionsgate.

One of the biggest misses of the year so far was right behind in fifth place, Warner Bros.' "Beautiful Creatures."  The adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's novel grossed only $2.54 million for what could be a $15-17 million five-day weekend at best.  "Creatures" actually received more positive reviews than "Safe Haven" or "Die Hard 5," but WB couldn't find a marketing direction that inspired moviegoers to buy a ticket. At least, not yet.

Look for box office updates all weekend long on HitFix.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

• Follow

With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.