Despite an R rating and glum subject matter, the true military story powers to a convincing win at theaters. 
 
 "Lone Survivor" was alone at the top of the box office in its opening weekend. (Photo: Universal Pictures) Story Highlights True military story doubles forecasts 
 
 Film plays on patriotic themes 
 
 'Hercules' provest to be a wimp at theaters 
 
 Hercules was no match for Navy SEALs as Lone Survivor powered to a surprisingly lopsided win at the box office this weekend. 
 
 The true story of a military mission gone awry collected $38.5 million, according to studio estimates from box office trackers Rentrak. 
 
 While the movie opened in limited release on Christmas Day, the Mark Wahlberg drama did twice what most analysts expected. The movie has collected $38.9 million overall. 
 
 MORE: The weekend's top 10 films 
 
 Despite an R rating and a story based on a failed 2005 mission that left 19 U.S. casualties, Survivor played particularly well in the heartland with a patriotic ad campaign, say analysts. 
 
 "Instead of focusing on the downer of a story, Universal's marketing has played up the movie's themes of courage and brotherhood," says Ray Subers, analyst for Box Office Mojo. 
 
 Critics and fans signed up for the mission. Survivor earned a 73% approval rating from the nation's reviewers and a thumbs-up from 86% of moviegoers, says pollsters Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Peter Berg, the movie earned a collective grade of A-plus from fans, according to CinemaScore. 
 
 The debut was enough for an easy win at the box office and bump Frozen from the top spot. The Disney animated comedy did $15.1 million and second place. 
 
 Leonardo DiCaprio's The Wolf of Wall Street was third with $9 million. 
 
 The only major newcomer of the weekend, The Legend of Hercules, mustered a wimpy $8.6 million, below its modest forecast of $12 million. 
 
 The film tied with American Hustle, which also claimed $8.6 million. 
 
 Final figures are due Monday. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1eNi8Dc ||||| Box Office: 'Lone Survivor' Victorious With $38.5 Million Debut 
 
 UPDATED: "Frozen" sails past the $700 million mark globally, while "The Legend of Hercules" shows no muscle; "August: Osage County" beats "Her." 
 
 Winning over the minds and hearts of moviegoers in America's heartland, Peter Berg's Navy SEALs drama Lone Survivor opened to a huge $38.5 million in North America, far more than expected and the best showing of any post-9/11 war film. 
 
 The patriotic-themed pic, earning a coveted A+ CinemaScore, boasts the second-best debut of all time for the month of January after Cloverfield ($40.1 million). Lone Survivor was strongest in flyover states, led by Texas (as expected, Canada was weak). The film's cume is $38.9 million when accounting for its exclusive awards qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles. 
 
 Starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster, Lone Survivor is based on Marcus Luttrell's memoir about four SEALs sent on a dangerous mission to Afghanistan. (Wahlberg plays Luttrell.) Universal is releasing Lone Survivor domestically and in select foreign markets. Emmett/Furla Films produced the $40 million pic, which was financed in part by embattled Envision Films. 
 
 THR COVER: Mark Wahlberg on 'Entourage' Cast Apology, Wish to Own a Studio 
 
 "It's a great story about patriotism, survival and heroism, and incredible courage. It worked well everywhere, but Middle America really, really responded. The publicity and marketing effort was amazing, including supporting Marcus in reaching out everywhere to tell his story. Pete and Mark were everywhere, too," said Universal domestic marketing chief Nikki Rocco. 
 
 Lone Survivor marks a comeback for Berg after his pricey miss Battleship. 
 
 Disney's holdover Frozen fell to No. 2 with roughly $15 million, pushing its domestic total to north of $317 million. The tentpole, with an international cume of $394.6 million, sailed past the $700 million mark worldwide to end the weekend with $712.2 million in total ticket sales. For the first time, Frozen topped the weekend foreign chart, taking in $25.8 million. 
 
 Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street did pleasing business in its third weekend, grossing $9 million for a domestic total of $78.6 million. Placing No. 3, the controversial film continues to do best on both coasts. 
 
 Millennium Films' new entry The Legend of Hercules followed with a weak $8.6 million, tying with holdover American Hustle for No. 4. 
 
 Distributed by Summit Entertainment, Hercules needed to do more considering its $70 million production budget. The epic, directed by Renny Harlin, receiving a lukewarm B- CinemaScore, is the first of two Hercules pics slotted for 2014. 
 
 American Hustle, from director David O. Russell, also remained strong as it crossed the $100 million mark in North America, ending its fourth weekend in nationwide release with a cume of $101.6 million. 
 
 STORY: The 20 Most Profitable Films of 2013 
 
 A number of award contenders expanding on the eve of Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, including John Wells' August: Osage County and Spike Jonze's Her, both of which are now playing nationwide. In addition to benefiting from any Globe wins, contenders also wanted to have an increased profile when Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 16. 
 
 Osage County outperformed expectations, grossing $7.3 million to come in No. 7. The dysfunctional family drama, from The Weinstein Co., bested Her despite playing in far fewer theaters (905 versus 1,729). Similar to Lone Survivor, Osage County was fueled by a strong turnout in America's heartland. The adaptation of Tracy Letts' play pairs Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts for the first time. 
 
 "The success of the film clearly speaks to the popularity of Meryl and Julia," said TWC distribution chief Erik Lomis. "People are judging it on its own merits, whether or not they have seen the play." 
 
 Disney's awards hopeful Saving Mr. Banks placed No. 8, earning $6.6 million in its fourth weekend in nationwide release for a domestic total of $68.9 million. 
 
 Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, grossed a soft $5.4 million to come in No. 11. 
 
 "We had a very deliberate rollout strategy. Our strategy was to open nationwide before Academy Award nominations were announced so that we could pick up steam. This isn't about today's particular result, it's about feeding the film for upcoming weeks," said Warner Bros.' Jeff Goldstein, whose team also intends to up Gravity's theater count next weekend following Oscar nominations. 
 
 Among other award titles up for top awards at Sunday's Globes ceremony, Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis and Alexander Payne's Nebraska made their biggest push yet, although they aren't yet playing nationwide. 
 
 Llewyn Davis, released by CBS Films domestically, upped its theater count to a total of 729 locations, grossing $1.9 million for a domestic total of $9.3 million, surpassing the entire lifetime gross of the Coen's A Serious Man ($9.2 million). 
 
 Nebraska, expanding into a total of 521 theaters, grossed $8.1 million for a domestic total of $8.1 million for Paramount. 
 
 Elsewhere, the weekend wasn't a total wash for Warner Bros. as Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug crossed $800 million worldwide as it winds down. The sequel, however, won't likely match the $1 billion-plus earned globally by last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Desolation of Smaug has taken in $242.2 million domestically, where it is pacing behind the first film, and $566 million overseas for a total $808.2 million. 
 
 Desolation of Smaug has yet to open in China and Japan, where the first film collectively grossed roughly $70 million. 
 
 The big headline in China over the weekend was Universal's Despicable Me 2, which opened to stellar $13.8 million, the third-best opening of all time for an animated film after Kung Fu Panda ($16.2 million) and Ice Age: Continental Drift ($19.4 million). Universal said the debut was particularly noteworthy since the first Despicable Me didn't play in China. The sequel's worldwide total is now $935.1 million. ||||| Looks like January man Mark Wahlberg is going to score his biggest opening yet for the wintery month. The actor’s war drama Lone Survivor, based on the true story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, earned an estimated $14.4 million Friday for a likely three-day take in the $35 million to $40 million range. With an A+ Cinemascore and drawing both male and female audiences, the Peter Berg-directed movie is destined to be the first big hit of 2014. 
 
 Another newcomer, the testosterone-fueled pic The Legend of Hercules, didn’t fare nearly as well. Starring Kellan Lutz (Twilight) as the mythical Greek hero, Hercules generated an estimated $3.08 million Friday. That should put the Renny Harlin-directed piece in third place with a weekend that may not reach the double-digits. 
 
 Rounding out the rest of the top five are Disney’s Frozen with an additional $3.1 million Friday for a likely $15 million weekend and an overall cume north of $305 million. Oscar contenders The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle are set to take over the third and fourth slots for the frame. The three-hour Wolf from director Martin Scorsese earned an estimated $2.7 million Friday for an estimated $9 million grab for the weekend. That will push its total to $72.3 million, while David O. Russell’s swinging ’70s caper Hustle nabbed an estimated $2.6 million Friday, putting its weekend also around $9 million and its total earnings at a bit over $95 million. 
 
 
 
 Other films of note include Weinstein Co.’s August: Osage County, which expanded to 905 theaters and earned an estimated $2.2 million for a weekend total that could reach around $7.5 million. Warner Bros.’ Her saw an expansion into an additional 1,600 theaters, yet the Spike Jonze-directed flick earned only an estimated $1.8 million Friday for a weekend that might not exceed much more than $5 million. 
 
 The top five: 
 
 1. Lone Survivor – $14.4 million 
 
 2. Frozen – $3.1 million 
 
 3. The Legend of Hercules — $3.08 million 
 
 4. The Wolf of Wall Street – $2.7 million 
 
 5. American Hustle – $2.6 million 
 
 Check back to EW.com tomorrow for the full box office report ||||| We're in the midst of awards season, which means that audiences are being treated to the very best Hollywood has to offer. The past few weeks have seen the release of Oscar hopefuls like Inside Llewyn Davis and Out of the Furnace, with plenty of buzzy films like American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Her still on the horizon. 
 
 If only Hollywood's box-office lineup were always this good. It's been a strong year for movies, but as always, a few truly awful movies have managed to slip into wide release. Here's a look back at the 10 worst-reviewed movies to hit theaters in 2013, based on their Rotten Tomatoes scores: 
 
 10. After Earth (11 percent) 
 
 Budget: $130 million 
 
 Gross: $60.5 million 
 
 In a summer that saw a string of high-profile action flops like The Lone Ranger and R.I.P.D., After Earth turned out to be the most scathingly received of all. The sci-fi blockbuster was widely derided as a thinly veiled vanity project for the Smith family, in which Will Smith — one of the most bankable and charismatic actors on the planet — tried and failed to launch a similar career for his 15-year-old son, Jaden. Audiences didn't bite, despite top-notch special effects and an ad campaign that went out of its way to disguise the presence of director M. Night Shyamalan. "Is After Earth the worst movie ever made?" asked Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal. "Maybe not; there's always Battlefield Earth to remind us how low the bar can go." 
 
 
 
 9. A Haunted House (10 percent) 
 
 Budget: $2.5 million 
 
 Gross: $40 million 
 
 This year got off to a particular inauspicious start with A Haunted House, a dismal spoof of the Paranormal Activity franchise that was rushed into theaters ahead of the latest Scary Movie, with Marlon Wayans (who starred in the first two Scary Movie movies) serving as producer, writer, and star. Critics dogged A Haunted House for its sexist and homophobic "jokes," and for being an unfunny movie in general. "If the opening gag in your R-rated movie is an extended flatulence joke, you should reconsider whether you're qualified to make such a movie," wrote Neil Genzlinger at The New York Times. Audiences turned up anyway, to the tune of a cool $40 million, and A Haunted House 2 was fast-tracked into production. It hits theaters in March 2014. 
 
 
 
 8. The Host (8 percent) 
 
 Budget: $40 million 
 
 Gross: $26.6 million 
 
 Despite being tepidly received by critics, the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series tore up the box office with a story of a vampire, a werewolf, and the bland girl they're inexplicably fighting over. So it's no great surprise that Meyers' other YA novel, The Host, was deemed a hot property for the big screen. But lightning failed to strike twice; The Host, a post-apocalyptic romance about a girl whose body is inhabited by an alien life force, earned even worse reviews than the Twilight franchise, and failed to attract even a fraction of its audience. "A sci-fi writer like Philip K. Dick might have used this premise to explore notions of memory and identity," said Rafer Guzman at Newsday. "Meyer uses it to create a teen soap opera." 
 
 7. Grown Ups 2 (7 percent) 
 
 Budget: $80 million 
 
 Gross: $133.7 million 
 
 Grown Ups overcame scathing reviews in 2010 to gross a whopping $162 million domestically, which paved the way for this summer's Grown Ups 2 — a film that somehow managed to garner even worse reviews than the original. Grown Ups 2 reunited Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, and David Spade for a bottom-scraping comedy that opens with an extended sequence in which a deer urinates all over Sandler's face. "It honestly seems as if Sandler and his team descended on a random suburb, halfheartedly improvising and moving on when they got bored," said Sara Stewart at the New York Post. Maybe audiences were tired of Sandler's antics, too; Grown Ups 2 earned almost $30 million less than its predecessor at the domestic box office. 
 
 6. The Big Wedding (7 percent) 
 
 Budget: $35 million 
 
 Gross: $21.8 million 
 
 It's been a particularly bleak time at the box office for romantic comedies, and movies like The Big Wedding are doing nothing to stanch the bleeding. The film wastes the talents of a stellar ensemble cast — including Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, and Robin Williams — with a broad, dumb, painfully contrived story about misadventures at a wedding. "Many Hollywood films are founded on privilege, but few are as open and nasty about their racism, misogyny, and homophobia," said Calum Marsh at the Village Voice. "It's a feel-good movie for people who only comfortable around people who look and act just like them." 
 
 5. Battle of the Year (4 percent) 
 
 Budget: $20 million 
 
 Gross: $8.9 million 
 
 Over the past decade, the success of the Step Up franchise has led to a host of dance film imitators like Honey and You Got Served. But even by the lowered standards of the genre, Battle of the Year — which follows an underdog American dance team at an international competition — was a flop. The presence of cultural lightning rod Chris Brown didn't do much to boost Battle of the Year's chances at the box office, though Toronto Star critic Linda Bernard's negative review did include this silver lining: "Chris Brown gets punched in the face, so it's not a total wash." 
 
 4. Scary Movie 5 (4 percent) 
 
 Budget: $20 million 
 
 Gross: $32 million 
 
 Who could have guessed that A Haunted House wouldn't be the worst-reviewed Paranormal Actvity parody of the year? Scary Movie 5 is by far the stupidest in the franchise, which has never exactly been a critical darling anyway. The list of not particularly timely targets for satire also included Insidious, The Cabin in the Woods, and Mama, plus a few non-horror movies like Inception and 127 Hours. And despite heavy press coverage, Scary Movie 5's "big get" — a brutally unfunny scene in which Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan play themselves during a one-night stand — didn't exactly pull in audiences. "A film composed almost entirely of jokes that were much funnier when you read them on Twitter years ago," said Darren Franich at Entertainment Weekly. 
 
 3. Movie 43 (4 percent) 
 
 Budget: $6 million 
 
 Gross: $8.8 million 
 
 Whatever else you can say about Movie 43, you have to give its producers credit for ingenuity. First, they convinced a staggering array of big-name actors — including Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Emma Stone, Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Uma Thuman, and dozens more — to appear in a series of brief, unrelated sketches. Next, they strung those sketches together with a flimsy framing device and slapped on the meaningless title Movie 43. Finally, they used all those famous names to try and trick audiences into thinking that the movie was actually good. Fortunately, audiences were too smart to fall for it. "As a film critic, I've seen nearly 4,000 movies over the last 15 years," said Elizabeth Weitzman at the New York Daily News. "Right now, I can't think of one worse than Movie 43." 
 
 2. Paranoia (4 percent) 
 
 Budget: $35 million 
 
 Gross: $7.4 million 
 
 In a different era, a thriller starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Richard Dreyfuss might have been slotted for a major release date in the middle of summer. But the bland Paranoia turned out to be little more than a failed vehicle for Liam Hemsworth. It was dumped into the cinematic doldrums of mid-August: The sweet spot between summer blockbuster season and the fall awards season that's generally reserved for terrible movies. Filled with corporate espionage both predictable and dull, Paranoia proved as generic and forgettable as its title. "What it lacks is even an iota of originality," complained Steven Rea at the Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 1. Getaway (2 percent) 
 
 Budget: $18 million 
 
 Gross: $10.5 million 
 
 Joining Paranoia in the cinematic dumping ground of August was Getaway, a non-thrilling thriller directed by the producer behind such gems as Dungeons & Dragons and The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations. Getaway follows Brent Magna, a retired race car driver played by Ethan Hawke who is forced to complete a series of tasks for the mysterious man who kidnapped his wife. Playing like an off-brand blend of Saw and Speed, Getaway didn't even bother to give its other characters names, referring to Selena Gomez's supporting character as "The Kid" and Jon Voight's villain as "The Voice." "You've probably seen this movie before, watching a child play with his toy Hot Wheels cars after eating multiple bowls of sugary breakfast cereal," said Peter Hartlaub at the San Francisco Chronicle. 
 
 But don't feel too bad for Hawke, who also starred in Before Midnight — one of the best-reviewed movies of 2013. Which means there's a consolation for any filmmaker, writer, or actor who wound up on 2013's worst-reviewed movie list: There's always next year.
– Lone Survivor shocked Hollywood this weekend with a blistering $38.9 million debut—the best of any war film since 9/11, says the Hollywood Reporter. Analysts tell USA Today that the Mark Wahlberg drama, about a US military mission gone wrong, fared well in the heartland thanks to a patriotic ad campaign. "Instead of focusing on the downer of a story, Universal's marketing has played up the movie's themes of courage and brotherhood," says an expert from Box Office Mojo. Filling out the top five are Frozen ($15.1 million), The Wolf of Wall Street ($9 million), newcomer The Legend of Hercules and American Hustle (both $8.6 million). Meanwhile the darkly comedic August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, expanded to 905 screens for about $2.2 million, Entertainment Weekly reports. "The success of the film clearly speaks to the popularity of Meryl and Julia," said a Weinstein Company executive. The well-reviewed Her, about a writer who falls for his computer's operating system, grew to an extra 1,600 theaters and banked a soft $5 million. "This isn't about today's particular result, it's about feeding the film for upcoming weeks," said a Warner Bros. executive about the company's Oscar strategy.