‘The Vow’ tops record-breaking box office with $41.7 million

Hollywood had one of its biggest regular non-holiday weekends in recent memory and, in fact, might have been one of the biggest ever. As expected, for the first time, Hollywood had four films debut to over $20 million for the first time ever on a non-holiday weekend. Considering it is so close to Valentine's Day, it only makes sense that the romantic drama, The Vow would come out on top.

According to Entertainment Weekly, it was the first time since Christmas 2008 that four films opened to $20 million or more, but again, that was a holiday weekend. Three of this weekend’s films far exceeded expectations, starting with The Vow with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. The Sony/Screen Gems film opened to $41.7 million, easily the best opening so far this year. The PG-13 film cost Screen Gems and Spyglass Entertainment just $30 million to make and received a B CinemaScore grade from audiences. It could get another boost during the week, especially with Valentine's Day on Tuesday and the fact that it won’t have to compete with This Means War that day.

Next up was Safe House, which made $39.3 million. The Los Angeles Times reports that it was the second highest opening in Denzel Washington’s career, after 2007’s American Gangster made $43.6 million in its opening weekend. The film, which also stars Ryan Reynolds, cost Universal Pictures and Relativity Media $85 million to make and the two studios are banking on the film making much more overseas. It already made $10.5 million in foreign box office receipts this weekend.

While The Vow and Safe House were expected to fight for first place, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was not expected to make more than the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. However, Warner Bros.’ 3D adventure film did just that, making $27.6 million. The film is also a big overseas success, making $25.5 million in foreign markets.

The Phantom Menace made $23 million over the weekend, notes Deadline. It was the only film that did not exceed expectations. Although George Lucas does plan on releasing all six Star Wars films in 3D, Fox, the films’ distributor, has yet to announce when Attack of the Clones will be re-released, notes the LA Times.

The only film from the previous weekend to stay in the top five was Fox’s Chronicle, which made $12.3 million, 44 percent less than the weekend before, notes EW. The Woman in Black also fell significantly, making just $10.3 million.