Box office 'The Vow' leads supercharged Friday with $15.4 mil

The Vow

The Vow Whatever pill this year’s box office is taking, I want it. Exceeding the most optimistic projections, this weekend is on the way to having four movies open to more than $20 million each, and it should become the biggest non-holiday February weekend ever.
Leading the charge was The Vow, which took in $15.4 million on Friday. That puts the $30 million movie on track for a $41 million weekend — the best opening ever for the Sony-owned production company Screen Gems (beating Dear John‘s $30.5 million debut).
The Vow, which stars Rachel McAdams as a car-accident victim who forgets that Channing Tatum is her husband (impossible!), drew a crowd that was 74 percent female, and CinemaScore audiences handed it an overall “B” rating. The PG-13 film could be slightly front-loaded, though, as this is the first major romantic drama to hit theaters since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.
That would be good news for the Denzel Washington thriller Safe House, which finished slightly behind The Vow with $13.8 million. The R-rated movie is on pace for a $39 million weekend, which would represent Washington’s second-best opening ever (after American Gangster‘s $43.6 million). Make no mistake about it — Washington was the big draw here. According to CinemaScore, 72 percent of moviegoers said the actor was their reason for buying a ticket. Washington hasn’t been in a film for more than a year, and audiences were clearly itching to see him back on the big screen and playing a baddie once again. readmore...