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Eighth place gives us the Weinstein Co.’s second of three movies to appear in the top ten this weekend. Silver Linings Playbook, whose sole Oscar was Jennifer Lawrence’s Best Actress award last Sunday, drops one spot from last weekend, falling only 2%. With another $5.9 million added to the coffers this weekend, the movie has now seen its domestic total rise to $115.5 million, compared to its $21 million budget. Considering its subject matter and unusual storytelling style, it’s safe to say that Silver Linings Playbook was one of the big winners of award season even if it didn’t come away with a ton of trophies.

Plummeting down the ranks of the top ten once again is A Good Day to Die Hard, which falls from fifth last weekend down to ninth in this frame. Shedding almost a thousand screens already, the Bruce Willis actioner earned $4.5 million this weekend, down another 55%. The big problem for A Good Day to Die Hard, unlike Live Free or Die Hard, is that it’s just not very well-received by…well, anyone. Live Free or Die Hard finished with $134.5 million; the latest entry for the franchise has now reached $59.6 million and doesn’t have a lot of life left in it. The only good news is that overseas revenues are already more than $130 million, so while profitability isn’t as strong for that market, Fox is still going to come out of this okay.

The Weinsteins’ third entry in the top ten winds up in tenth place. Dark Skies, a title that sounds like it ought to be a series on TNT (was it a series on TNT?) earned another $3.6 million this weekend, down a vicious 60% from its debut last week. That’s a pretty typical result for horror, though, so that drop isn’t really out of the ordinary. Anyway, the film was created on a shoestring $3.5 million budget, so its domestic total of $13.6 million is actually just fine.

There was another wide release this weekend, appearing in 1,118 locations. Phantom, which you’ve never heard of but featured Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner, pulled a near-Oogieloves by earning just $465,000. If that estimate holds, it will have beaten the Oogieloves’ opening weekend total by a few thousand dollars, but at least it won’t have quite the same dismal per venue average. The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure earned only $206 per location during its opening weekend, but RCR Media’s lower screen count means that the damage won’t be as bad – we guess. The budget for this disaster was $18 million, so someone is definitely taking it on the chin here. Never has there been a more apt tagline than "You'll never see it coming."

Last weekend’s big Oscar winners didn’t see a lot of traction outside of Silver Linings Playbook, but that’s mainly because the awards were split amongst so many of them and also because the Best Picture winner is available on home video. Life of Pi was the biggest beneficiary of its four wins, jumping 43% to $2.3 million. Its overall domestic total is now $117 million (along with $475 million from overseas venues). Argo got a bump of 21% up to $2.2 million, and now has a cumulative total of $132 million.

Overall this weekend, the box office underwhelmed once again. The top 12 earned $94.4 million, down 38% from last year’s $152.4 million when Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax opened with $70.2 million and Project X earned $21 million. In fact, this year’s top 12 just barely beat last year’s top two. Yikes.

Disney is hoping to turn things around next weekend when it releases Oz the Great and Powerful. Also new in theaters will be Dead Man Down, which features Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace and Terrence Howard, but it isn’t likely to have much impact.

Top Weekend Box Office for 3/1/13-3/3/13 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Jack the Giant Slayer	WARNER BROS.	$28,010,000	New	$28,010,000
2	Identity Thief	UNIVERSAL	$9,706,150	- 31%	$107,433,255
3	21 & Over	Relativity	$9,000,000	New	$9,000,000
4	The Last Exorcism: Part Ii	Cbs Films	$8,030,000	New	$8,030,000
5	Snitch	New Line Cinema	$7,700,000	- 42%	$24,410,339
6	Escape From Planet Earth	Weinstein Co.	$6,726,000	- 37%	$43,213,050
7	Safe Haven	Relativity	$6,300,000	- 40%	$57,093,483
8	Silver Linings Playbook	The Weinstein Company	$5,941,000	+ 3%	$115,520,639
9	A Good Day To Die Hard	Fox	$4,500,000	- 56%	$59,624,000
10	Dark Skies	Weinstein Co.	$3,556,000	- 57%	$13,452,687
11	Warm Bodies	Lionsgate	$2,650,000	- 45%	$62,009,674
12	Life of Pi	Twentieth Century Fox	$2,300,000	+ 43%	$116,943,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	Phantom	Rcr Media	$465,000	New	$465,000
	War Witch	Tribeca Film	$10,260	New	$10,260
	Leviathan	Cinema Guild	$10,018	New	$10,018
	Hava Nagila (the Movie)	Int'l Film Circuit	$9,521	New	$9,521
	Welcome To Pine Hill	Oscilloscope	$4,000	New	$4,000
	The End of Love	Variance	$2,400	New	$2,400
	Beautiful Creatures	WARNER BROS.	$923,000	- 74%	$18,529,000
	No	Sony Classics	$110,144	+ 58%	$317,175
	Side Effects	Open Road	$1,777,000	- 47%	$28,101,000
	The Gatekeepers	Sony Classics	$255,255	+ 91%	$685,373
	Quartet	Weinstein Co.	$1,760,000	+ 56%	$11,159,790
	Django Unchained	The Weinstein Company	$1,024,000	+ 5%	$160,316,007
	Les Miserables	UNIVERSAL	$559,680	- 12%	$147,619,290
	Amour	Sony Classics	$522,283	- 27%	$5,921,762
	Zero Dark Thirty	Sony/Columbia	$1,300,000	- 42%	$93,600,000
	Lincoln	DreamWorks	$1,005,000	- 32%	$180,091,000
	Argo	Warner Bros.	$2,205,000	+ 21%	$132,761,000
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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