Friday Box Office – ACT OF VALOR Shoots Down Competition with $9 Million Debut

Looks like that big Super Bowl buy paid off for Relativity, whose Act of Valor easily captured Friday’s top spot. From its launch in 3,039 locations, the R-rated Navy Seals’ drama earned an estimated $9 million – indicating a weekend in excess of $25 million. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds took second on Friday with $5.4 million from 2,132 venues.  At this point the romantic-drama is tracking under the $20 million that has become standard for the filmmaker. I was personally expecting more from Good Deeds (especially after Perry’s much-lauded eulogy for Whitney Houston last Saturday), but it looks like the film will end its first three days with around $18 million, or the low end of recent Perry projects. Speaking of lows, the comedy Wanderlust is poised to set the nadir for a Judd Apatow-produced feature. From its launch in 2,002 locations, the Universal comedy earned just $2.2 million on Friday in eighth place, and is expected to gross around $7.5 million by Sunday – less than Drillbit Taylor, in other words. Things look even bleaker for the Summit thriller Gone, however, which debuted in ninth place with $1.7 million for a projected weekend of $5.5 million.  Full details and analysis tomorrow.