box office

This week we get a big-budget Hollywood retelling of one of the most famous biblical stories of them all, plus the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger in kicking-butt mode.

New in theaters this week: the latest young-adult-novel-to-screen adaptation, a la 'Hunger Games,' and the return of the Muppets.

If the goal for 'Need For Speed' was to replicate the success of the 'Fast and Furious' films, then the film's opening weekend is not promising. Opening in third place, the video game adaptation was overtaken by two of last week's releases, making this potential franchise D.O.A.

Talk about a weekend with a little something for everyone.

This weekend saw a brutal showdown between Liam Neeson, the current god of action cinema, and Jesus Christ, the current god of millions of human beings. Since the box office is a "two may enter, but only one may leave" type showdown, the victory ultimately went to Mr. Neeson and 'Non-Stop,' which edged out the son of God and his movie, uh, 'Son of God' to win the weekend.

Two very different features hit theaters this weekend. The first is an action-thriller with Liam Neeson (seems like all he ever does is action-thrillers these days, doesn't it?). The second tells the story of Jesus Christ. So yeah, pretty different.

For the third weekend in a row, 'The LEGO Movie' effortlessly held onto the number one spot at the box office, cutting down all of the newbies that showed up to dethrone it. Don't cry to hard for '3 Days to Kill,' but feel free to wince a'plenty for 'Pompeii.'

In the mood for some action? Good news! You can now do spy-thriller action or disaster-movie action. Choose wisely.

When 'RoboCop' got pushed from an August 2013 release date to February 2014, everyone assumed it would open stronger when far away from the busy summer months. If this is the better of the two options, then we can't even imagine how poorly it would have opened in the warmer months. The remake of the 1987 classic is definitely not a disaster, but it most certainly underperformed.

And here we are: five weeks into the new year and we already have our first major blockbuster of 2014. Early estimates had 'The LEGO Movie' opening big, but the animated adventure shattered all expectations this weekend, with universally positive reviews and word of mouth sending the film to a massive opening.

After a somewhat slow start to the moviegoing year, this weekend features three big-time pictures hitting theaters, with something for all ages.

Unless you had a personal stake in a film being released this weekend, movies were far from the most important thing happening to you these past couple of days. You can blame the weekend's mostly anemic box office on one thing: the Super Bowl. Everyone spent their money buying snacks and preparing their parties and not going to see 'That Awkward Moment' and 'Labor Day,' both of which opened soft.