‘The Vow’ sets Valentine’s Day record with $11.6 million box office
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Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams’ big-screen love proved to be couples’ top choice on Valentine’s Day, as ‘The Vow’ sold a record number of tickets on the romantic holiday.
The tear-jerker released by Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems label raked in an estimated $11.6 million on Tuesday. That’s nearly double as much as Tuesday’s No. 2 film, the Denzel Washington thriller ‘Safe House,’ which collected $6.1 million.
Since opening on Friday, ‘The Vow’ has collected a very healthy $56.1 million.
The previous box office record for a weekday Valentine’s Day was set by ‘Hitch.’ The Will Smith romantic comedy grossed $7.5 million on Feb. 14 in 2005.
Overall, ticket sales amounted to $30.1 million on Valentine’s Day this year, up 38% compared with 2011’s holiday total of $21.8 million.
Many in Hollywood are attributing part of ‘The Vow’s’ success to Sony’s digital campaign for the film, which engaged fans on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (For more, see this story in Wednesday’s Times.)
Also on Tuesday night, 20th Century Fox ran sneak previews for its romantic comedy action film ‘This Means War’ at about 2,500 theaters. With one screening only at about 7 p.m, the picture grossed $1.6 million. It is now gone from theaters until Friday, when it officially opens nation-wide.
[Update, 12:31 p.m.: This post was updated to include box office results for the ‘This Means War’ sneak preview.]
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-- Amy Kaufman