Romantic drama 'The Vow' beats action flicks to top weekend box office

Washington, Feb 13 (ANI): With Valentine's Day just round the corner, love triumphed over action at the weekend box office with the romantic drama 'The Vow' debuting at number one, raking in 41.7 million dollars.

According to studio estimates on Sunday, the love story starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum came in ahead of two new action tales and the first 3-D 'Star Wars' reissue, the Washington Post reported.

Landing a close second with 39.3 million dollars was Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds' action thriller 'Safe House'. Coming in solidly at number 3 was Dwayne Johnson's family action sequel 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island' with 27.6 million dollars.

Adding to George Lucas' riches was the 3-D premiere of 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace', which was number 4 with 23 million dollars, raising the lifetime domestic total for 'Phantom Menace' to 454.1 million dollars.

Paul Dergarabedian, the analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com said that this was the first non-holiday weekend that four movies opened with more than 20 million dollars each. The only other time when four new releases did that well was over Christmas weekend in 2008.

The four big debuts maintained Hollywood's strong business during the normally sleepy winter. Overall domestic revenues totalled 193 million dollars, up 19.3 percent from the same weekend last year, when 'Just Go with It' led with 30.5 million dollars.

Timed to Valentine's Day on Tuesday, 'The Vow' stars McAdams as a woman who awakens in the hospital after a car wreck with no memory of her husband Tatum and the last five years of her life.

Women accounted for 72 percent of the audience for 'The Vow', whose receipts in just its first two days exceeded the movie's 30 million dollars production budget.

'The Vow' added 9.7 million dollars in 20 overseas markets to bring its worldwide total to 51.4 million dollars.

'Safe House' also took in 10.2 million dollars from 25 overseas territories to lift its worldwide total to 49.5 million dollars. (ANI)