'Man' beats '22 Jump Street,' 'Dragon' to win weekend box office

[June 23, 2014]  By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Think Like A Man Too", a sequel to the 2012 comedy based on Steve Harvey's book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man", collected $30 million in ticket sales to lead the weekend box office, outdistancing last weekend's top film, "22 Jump Street".

In a rare summer week with no big-budget movie openings, "22 Jump Street", starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, took the No. 2 spot with $29 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters for the three days ending on Sunday.

The animated film "How to Train Your Dragon 2" was third with $25.3 million in its second week, according to box office tracking firm Rentrak.

Director Clint Eastwood's "Jersey Boys," the story of the musical group The Four Seasons, was fourth with $13.5 million, beating industry estimates of an $11 million opening.

"Think Like a Man Too," starring Kevin Hart and Michael Ealy, started strong with $1.8 million at Thursday night showings, tracking site Box Office Mojo said, despite mostly poor reviews. Only 15 of 67 reviewers gave it a thumbs up, according to Rotten Tomatoes, though 77 percent of moviegoers said they liked it.
 

"This was a terrific opening, especially having more competition from summer movies than when we opened the first one" in April 2012, said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony whose Screen Gems label distributed it.

The film had a modest budget of about $24 million.

"Jersey Boys," which features a soundtrack of Four Seasons hits including "Walk Like a Man" and "Big Girls Don't Cry," received mixed reviews, with the site Metacritic giving it a 54 out of 100, based on reviews by 39 critics.

"There's very little for adults out there right now," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. which released the film, speaking to its marketing plan.

"We hoped for great exit poll ratings, which we got," he said, citing the A rating from 92 percent of ticket buyers over age 25. Fellman added that audiences were applauding during and after the film, boding well for word of mouth and its prospects in coming weeks crowded with summer blockbusters.

Rounding out the top five, "Maleficent," Walt Disney's take on the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale starring Angelina Jolie as the evil spell-casting fairy, pulled in $13 million. The film has totaled $186 million in domestic sales and $521 million worldwide, Disney said.

"Think Like a Man Too" and "22 Jump Street" were released by Sony. Time Warner's Warner Brothers studio distributed "Jersey Boys."

"How to Train Your Dragon" was released by Fox, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox. The Walt Disney Co distributed "Maleficent."

(Reporting By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud; Editing by Sophie Hares and Nick Zieminski)

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