The fifth movie in the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" franchise scored the biggest box-office action over the U.S. holiday weekend, beating out love story "Safe Haven," which came in third for the Friday-through-Sunday period. 

"A Good Day to Die Hard," with Willis returning as the tenacious wise-cracking hero John McClane, pulled in $25 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates. 

The tally was expected to approach $40 million through Monday, the Presidents Day holiday in the United States.

"Die Hard" beat "Safe Haven," an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel that was aimed at luring couples during the week of Valentine's Day. The film, which stars Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, pulled in $21.4 million over three days.

Last weekend's box-office winner, the Melissa McCarthy comedy "Identity Thief," stayed strong and ended up taking second place with $23.4 million.

Willis prevailed with his reprisal of a role he played four previous times starting with the original "Die Hard" in 1988. Those movies grossed $1.1 billion around the world and made Willis a global action star.

In the new movie, McClane travels to Russia to help his estranged son, a CIA operative played by Jai Courtney, in a fight to prevent a nuclear-weapons heist.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox studio, said the film performed "right on par with our expectations," which was near $40 million for the five-day period through Monday.

Audiences were about 55 percent male and 45 percent female, with just over one-third under the age of 25 and two-thirds 25 and older, which Aronson said was in line with the franchise's last installment.

"It just shows the consistency of the fan base," he said.

The opening was nearly double the total of the original "Die Hard," adjusted for inflation, but down significantly from the previous three films in the franchise, according to figures from boxofficemojo.com.

News Corp's 20th Century Fox spent about $92 million to produce the latest "Die Hard" sequel. It hit theaters on Thursday, Valentine's Day, and, in addition to "Safe Haven," faced another romance movie in "Beautiful Creatures." Fox promoted "Die Hard" with commercials encouraging moviegoers to "get some action" on Valentine's Day.

"Beautiful Creatures," the supernatural love story about a teen girl with magical powers, made its debut with $7.5 million at the box office to rank sixth.

The film was another of several Hollywood films aiming to capture the "Twilight" and "Hunger Games" audiences of teen girls with adaptations of popular young adult novels.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' executive vice president of theatrical distribution, said "Beautiful Creatures," produced by Alcon Entertainment for about $60 million, had a number of competitors on a busy weekend and the studio had hoped for a bigger turnout. "It just missed the audience," Goldstein said.

"Safe Haven" stars "Dancing with the Stars" alum Hough as a young woman who meets a widower played by Duhamel. Privately held Relativity Media produced the film for $28 million.

The studio said the film had performed in line with industry expectations of $20 million to $25 million, and would likely place second from the Thursday-to-Monday holiday period.

In fourth place, family film "Escape from Planet Earth," pulled in $16.1 million. The $40 million animated movie features the voices of Brendan Fraser and Sarah Jessica Parker in the story of an astronaut who finds trouble when he responds to a distress call from an alien planet.

Zombie romance "Warm Bodies," in its third weekend of release, took the No. 5 slot with $9 million.

"Identity Thief" was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp. The privately held Weinstein Co released "Escape from Planet Earth." Lions Gate Entertainment's Summit studio released "Warm Bodies." "Beautiful Creatures" was produced by Alcon Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

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REVIEW: Let's get the basics out of the way first: If you want to see "A Good Day to Die Harder," the fifth film in the "Die Hard" series, that's pretty much a guarantee that you'll like it. Don't read the negative reviews that are sure to come out, just go.

No, Bruce Willis, 57, is not too old to be an action hero (though a few "Grandpa" jokes go a long way). Yes, he sails through blizzards of bullets seemingly untouched, makes the same joke ("I'm on vacation!") a dozen times, and the actual movie plot makes little sense (secret files and weapons-grade uranium and a truly bizarre visit to Chernobyl). So what? 

Willis tells GQ in the magazine's new issue that he knows he'll never win an Academy Award for his role as John McClane, saying "you don't get an Oscar for shooting people." Got that right.

But in McClane, he's created a truly classic character, and he deserves recognition. Untouchable, unbreakable heroes like the ones Arnold Schwarzenegger plays are fine in their place, but McClane's not that. He's more Indiana Jones or McGyver, street-smart and world-weary. He spots things others don't, dives through escape hatches that a sane person wouldn't consider, and through it all, remains the action hero you'd most want to have a beer with.

Here's the difference: Schwarzenegger knows he's the Terminator. Willis acts like he's a lunkhead with a gun, a hapless Joe just trying to get home. Terminators are fun to watch, but hapless Joes are the ones we take to heart.

This installment sends McClane to Moscow in pursuit of his equally lunkheaded son Jack (Aussie Jai Courtney), who turns out to be as much of a superhero as Dad, even though the actor himself has none of Willis' beer-me personality. Father and son hate each other at the start, then come around, duh.

That doesn't matter. What matters is that Willis is still a comfortable tour guide through the car-flipping, tank-driving, window-smashing wreckage that is "Die Hard's" stock and trade. His McClane tries to stop cars with his body. He takes a call from his daughter while driving over other vehicles. He dubs other characters "Papa Gepetto" and "Odd Job," bluntly confesses he's a bad dad, and agrees with his son that "we're not really a hugging family." He wins the audience over to the point that the plot holes and logic lapses and unexplained minor characters sail past you like the fusillades of bullets.

The "Die Hard" series has had some heart-in-your-throat moments, from a horrifying plane crash ("Die Hard 2") to McClane being forced to wear a racist sign in the middle of Harlem ("Die Hard With a Vengeance"). It's unlikely any moments from this film will stand out in the same way -- although one especially gruesome bad-guy death had the audience howling with laughter.  The father-son feud is meant to be the backbone of this one, and that makes for a lighter, never stressful movie.

Back in 2010, Willis said he'd make this film and then one more "Die Hard" installment  before he lets McClane yippee-ki-yay off into the sunset. But action heroes today scoff at mandatory retirement. Schwarzenegger just made "The Last Stand" at 65, and 66-year-old Sly Stallone starred in "Expendables 2." Willis himself has a role in "Expendables 3" and the upcoming "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." In other words, we'll believe McClane's retired when we see the AARP card, and not before.

Will you see "A Good Day to Die Hard"? How long can Willis keep at it? Tell us on Facebook.

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Let's face it: January and February are terrible months for new movies. You'd be better off using the upcoming month to catch up on those Oscar nominees you haven't seen that are still floating around theaters, or flop on the couch with a DVD of a film you missed last year.

But there's one bright spot about February, and it gleams as bright as sunlight off Bruce Willis' head.

BE MY 'DIE HARD' VALENTINE
Need a Valentine's Day date plan? Take your sweetie to see "A Good Day to Die Hard," also known as "Die Hard 5," also known as the film that 98 percent of Rotten Tomatoes readers want to see. "A Good Day to Die Hard" is set in Russia, leading to the sly posters you may have seen announcing "YIPPEE KI-YAY MOTHER RUSSIA." John McClane, hero of the four previous "Die Hards" and of course played again by Willis, heads there to save his adult son (cute Aussie Jai Courtney). Dad McClane thinks his son's a screw-up, but apparently instead he's a CIA agent saving the world from nuclear destruction. You know, just like how your dad thought you dropped out of community college and ... well, you really did do that. "Die Hard" is a beloved franchise, and the preview is old-school all the way, from the line of exploding vehicles to the tanks smashing up streets to Willis and Courtney crashing in synchronicity through a giant glass window. (Opens Feb. 14.)

'SOUND' OF MUSIC
The best documentaries take you into an engrossing and complicated world you never knew existed. Musician Dave Grohl turns film director for "Sound City," and delivers just such a world tour. Sound City is the Van Nuys, Calif., studio where Grohl and Nirvana recorded its famed album "Nevermind," and when it closed in 2011, Grohl felt so attached he reportedly bought the studio's mixing console. Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Mick Fleetwood and others recorded there, and the studio fought the good fight against the encroach of technology for as long as it could. "I really feel like 'Sound City' is my life’s most important work," Grohl said in a letter to those who pre-ordered the film. (In theaters and on demand Feb. 1.)

 

WATCH OUT FOR 'SIDE EFFECTS'
Rooney Mara stars in "Side Effects" as a woman who takes a new medication and suddenly finds herself caught up in a bloody murder. We've always thought that those lengthy, fast-spoken lists of warnings in pharmaceutical commercials were terrifying, and now we know why. (Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!) Acclaimed director Stephen Soderbergh is calling this his final film before what's either a retirement or a sabbatical, and critics are calling it a trippy mind-trick of a movie. Channing Tatum, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones also star. (Opens Feb. 8.)

SAY YES TO 'NO'
A Chilean film about an advertising campaign aimed at bringing down a dictator? Hey, why not? After all, Oscar-contender "Argo" is about a fake film aimed at rescuing Americans trapped in Iran. Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal stars in "No" as an ad exec fighting to use an ad campaign to get voters to remove General Augusto Pinochet from power. Jon Hamm and his "Mad Men" got nothin' on this. (Opens Feb. 15.)

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Oh, yes. "Die Hard" fans, we have just four months to wait. A short teaser trailer from "Die Hard 5," aka "A Good Day to Die Hard," has been released, and it's the Die Harderest of them all.

As Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" crashes in the background, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane to do some crashing of his own. Choppers! Guys in hazmat suits! Menacing figures on fast bikes! Bruce Willis racking a giant shotgun in an elevator! Breathtakingly gorgeous  Julia Snigir unzipping a black leather catsuit to reveal sexy lingerie!

Buildings blow up! Cars blow up! For some reason, a piano seems to blow up!

And Bruce Willis just smiles, and dubs himself "the 007 of Plainfield, New Jersey."

Yippie-ki-yay, monkey fighters. We're pretty sure that's the line, right?

The movie opens on Feb. 14, which makes sense for such a romantic film.

Will you see "Die Hard 5"? Tell us on Facebook.

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