ON PRESIDENTS DAY, MOVIEGOERS MAY ELECT TO STAY HOME

The Presidents Day weekend has never been a big holiday at the box office, and, given the severe weather on the East Coast, this one is expected to be particularly bleak. Three new films are opening this weekend, all of them remakes, and none is expected to mount much of a challenge to last week’s winner, The Lego Movie. Indeed, MGM/Sony’s Robocop, which jumped ahead of the pack and opened on Wednesday, earned just $2.8 million on its opening day and may not earn more than $15-20 million over the four-day weekend. The romantic comedy About Last Night, another Sony film (Robocop comes from Sony’s Columbia unit; this one comes from Sony’s Screen Gems unit), is expected to produce more ticket sales, if only because it’s opening on Valentine’s Day. Box-office pundits are predicting it will wind up with around $30-35 million over the long weekend. It reportedly cost just $13 million to produce. The third new film opening wide is Endless Love, another romcom, but one starring virtual unknowns. It’s likely to earn $12-16 million. As for The Lego Movie — it’s expected to repeat its first-place finish with about $35-40 million.