Bradley Cooper’s mind twisting thriller Limitless outperformed box office predictions and handily won the weekend box office with $19M. It also was a hit with audiences, earning a B+ cinemascore.
This is Cooper’s first true starring vehicle, and with a budget of around $27M, it should easily prove profitable. With The Hangover 2 right around the corner, Cooper will surely confirm his status as an A-list talent.
Johnny Depp helped propel Rango to number two with $15.2M. It dropped a respectable 32% from last weekend, bringing its three week total to $92.6M.
Battle: Los Angeles took quite a tumble; dropping off 59% from its opening weekend. It managed to make $14.6M over the weekend.
Matthew McConaughey scored fourth place with his Lincoln Lawyer debut. The film made $13.4m and was well received by audiences. Entertainment Weekly reports that this is the first film to join forces with Groupon. The popular daily coupon site sold discounted tickets to the movie for $6. They sold almost 200,000 tickets. It will be interesting to see if this model will be adapted by future films.
Rounding out the top five was Paul, featuring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Seth Rogan. Pegg and Frost previously brought us Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This time, the duo is running separate from their regular director, Edgar Wright, as Superbad director Greg Mottola grabbed the reins for this one.
Next week should be a big one, as Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch opens up against the sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
