Bieber and Sandler flicks vie for No. 1 at box office

Studio estimates on Sunday reflect that Justin Bieber’s movie, “Never Say Never”, followed comedy flick “Just Go With It” at North American box offices.

In its first weekend in cinemas, “Never Say Never” already garnered a total of $30.3 million, just short of $31 million for the romantic comedy flick by Columbia Pictures “Just Go With It”, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, which is in its debut weekend as well.

This appears to show that the 16-year-old Canadian pop star has a huge supportive fan base. Bieber’s movie tackles his rise to stardom through concert film and video of his everyday life. Along with early previews prior to the weekend, “Never Say Never” has earned a sum of $31 million in ticket sales. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Opening at 3,105 locations, Bieber gathered an audience composed of 84 percent female and 67 percent under the age of 25.

“It was impossible to track,” said Don Harris, general manager of distribution for Paramount. “The professional tracking services certainly had no handle on what the movie was going to do. But we were looking at our Friday numbers. And you have movie that cost $13 million to make and only $20 million to market, and we had Friday grosses that were around $12 million-$13 million. That’s when you want to be in this business a lot.”

Meanwhile, coming in at the third spot was “Gnomeo and Juliet”, an animated family film featuring the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt, with $25.5 million.