Identity Thief tops N. America box office
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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The comedy Identity Thief defied mediocre reviews by critics and topped the box office in the United States and Canada in its opening weekend, industry figures showed on Monday.
The comedy, starring Jason Bateman from the TV series Arrested Development and Bridesmaids breakaway star Melissa McCarthy, pulled in US$34.6 million (S$43 million) from Friday to Sunday, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Salon.com said the movie "reaches impressive heights of laziness and idiocy"; the Toronto Star slammed it as a "sloppily made exercise of rip-offs and redemption"; and National Public Radio dismissed it as an "uninspired trudge of a road movie".
It was followed by the romantic zombie comedy Warm Bodies, based on Isaac Marion's book of the same name and inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which earned US$11.4 million.
