Bryan Singer’s Jack The Giant Slayer is the first mega-budget movie of 2013, but if Hollywood was hoping it would break the box office bank and point to a bumper year ahead, they’ll be disappointed. The film took $28.1 million in its first weekend in US cinemas, which isn’t a complete disaster, but considering the movie cost nearly $200 million to make, it’s now going to have to rely on becoming a major success outside North America if it hopes to make its money back.
For comparison, the similarly budgeted John Carter took $30 million last March and ended up a financial disaster for Disney.
There were two more new entries in the US top 10, although neither of them covered themselves in glory. 21 And Over, the directorial debut of Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, took $9 million to place third on the chart. That’s less than half what the similarly pitched Project X took last year.
At number 4 is The Last Exorcism Part II, taking $8 million in its first three days. Considering the first film opened with $20 million, it’s a bit of a failure (but at least it was cheap to make).
While it was a rough weekend at the box office, with the overall gross down 38% on last year, at least there were a couple bright spots, with Identity Thief passing the $100 million mark in the US while, thanks to China, The Hobbit made it to $1 billion worldwide.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of March 1st-3rd.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Jack The Giant Slayer | $28.0 | $28.0 |
| 2 | Identity Thief | $9.7 | $107.4 |
| 3 | 21 And Over | $9.0 | $9.0 |
| 4 | The Last Exorcism Part II | $8.0 | $8.0 |
| 5 | Snitch | $7.7 | $24.4 |
| 6 | Escape From Planet Earth | $6.7 | $43.2 |
| 7 | Safe Haven | $6.3 | $57.0 |
| 8 | Silver Linings Playbook | $5.9 | $115.5 |
| 9 | A Good Day To Die Hard | $4.5 | $49.6 |
| 10 | Dark Skies | $3.5 | $13.4 |
Despite the box office usually being fairly open over the Oscar weekend, it was a particularly bad time for new movies, as the Dwayne Johnson action flick Snitch just missed out on the top spot, taking $13 million to place second. That allowed Identity Thief to return to the top, adding another $14 million, to take its total so far in American to $93 million.
Despite some truly atrocious reviews, audiences’ love of John McLane won out over the weekend, with the movie topping the US box office with $25 million from Friday to Sunday and $33 million since it was released last Thursday.

Yesterday,
20th Century Fox has been busy setting release, which has also allowed us to know exactly what the fifth Die Hard movie will be called. Indeed it’s let us know the film is a ot closer than many had thought it was.