'Act of Valor' storms the box office
It may have been Oscar weekend, but Hollywood stars were no match for real Navy SEALs at the box office.
Act of Valor, the action film featuring military personnel, pulled an upset at theaters, claiming $24.7 million and defeating films from Tyler Perry, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd.
Analysts expected the R-rated homage to the military's elite to make $14 million.
But tough reviews -- 30 percent of critics gave Valor a thumbs up, says Rottentomatoes.com -- couldn't slow the movie, which scored well with moviegoers. About 85 percent of audiences liked it, the amalgam site says.
The film took "a big risk by offering a new approach to entertainment" by featuring real special forces, says Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com.
He says "TV spots, which have been action-packed," helped lock up young male moviegoers, a target demographic that gave the movie an A, according to pollsters CinemaScore. Three-quarters of the audience was male, says distributor Relativity Media.
"With a production budget of just $12 million, this is a total winner," says Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com.
The opening was enough to hold off Tyler Perry's Good Deeds, which earned a solid $16 million, good for second place. Dergarabedian says the film saw a 25 percent uptick in business from Friday to Saturday, an indication of "great word of mouth."
Another movie getting audiences talking: Dwayne Johnson's 3-D family film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Journey, which hasn't budged from the top five in three weeks, took third place with $13.5 million, lifting its overall gross to $76.7 million.
Denzel Washington's Safe House took fourth with $11.4 million, followed by love story The Vow with $10 million.
Among the major newcomers, two films appear headed for video shelves early. Wanderlust, the comedy starring Aniston and Rudd, took eighth place with $6.6 million, half what analysts expected. The Amanda Seyfried crime thriller Gone didn't fare any better, mustering $5 million and ninth place.
Final figures are out today .
Valor helped keep ticket sales brisk. Revenues are up 18 percent over the same period last year, while attendance is up 20 percent.
