Box Office: Identity Thief Steals Oscar Weekend as Snitch, Dark Skies Fail to Step Up

Three-week-old comedy returns to No. 1 spot; Best Picture nominees stay solid, with yet another contender crossing $100 million mark domestically

Hollywood may be celebrating itself tonight, but it won't be celebrating its latest box office.

On a sluggish Oscar weekend, Identity Thief trumped new releases Snitch and Dark Skies, and returned to the top of rankings.

The Melissa McCarthy-Jason Bateman comedy scored a $14.1 million Friday-Sunday, per estimates, a solid showing for a movie in its third weekend in theaters, but the lowest take for a No. 1 movie this year.

The blame for that last part lies not with Identity Thief, but with its competition: Nothing stepped up.

Dwayne Johnson's Snitch, which grossed $13 million, actually came up bigger than expected, proving Hollywood knew it was in trouble heading into the weekend.

Dark Skies, the paranormal thriller with Keri Russell, bowed in sixth place with a nothing-special $8.9 million.

Identity Thief, currently the still-young year's No. 1-grossing movie, is the only 2013 release within shouting distance of $100 million domestically—it's currently at about $94 million overall.

A Good Day to Die Hard, last weekend's box-office champ, took a dive, dropping to fifth place, with $10 million. The Bruce Willis sequel is now at about $52 millon overall.

At least the Oscar movies continued to perform well.

Silver Linings Playbook (seventh place, $6.1 million) became the latest Best Picture nominee to top the $100 million mark. All told, six of the nine nominees have hit nine figures. Zero Dark Thirty, which finished just outside the Top 10 with a $2.3 million weekend, may yet make it seven—it's at $91.6 million domestically.

For those keeping score at home, Lincoln is the most popular Best Picture contender, with a domestic total of $178.6 million. It's followed by Django Unchained ($158.8 million), Les Misérables ($146.6 million) and favorite Argo ($129.8 million).

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday studio estimates and stats as compiled per Exhibitor Relations.

1. Identity Thief, $14.1 million
2. Snitch, $13 million
3. Escape From Planet Earth, $11 million
4. Safe Haven, $10.6 million
5. A Good Day to Die Hard, $10 million
6. Dark Skies, $8.9 million
7. Silver Linings Playbook, $6.1 million
8. Warm Bodies, $4.8 million
9. Side Effects, $3.5 million
10. Beautiful Creatures, $3.4 million

(Originally published on Feb. 24, 2013, at 11:19 a.m. PT.)