Justin Bieber: Never Say Never' Retains Box Office Heat in its Second Weekend

Paramount's Justin Bieber: Never Say Never retained more heat than expected in its second weekend, and will jump the $50 million mark by the end of the long President's Day holiday.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, Never Say Never grossed an estimated $13.6 million from 3,118 theaters between Friday and Sunday, bringing the film's cume to $48.5 million in its first 10 days, according to Rentrak.

The hybrid biopic-concert film fell only 54% -- compared to a 70% decline for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour in its second weekend. And on Saturday, the Bieber picture was down only 48% from a week earlier.
On Monday -- a holiday -- Never Say Never is expected to gross north of $3 million, upping its total weekend gross to nearly $17 million for a domestic cume of around $51 million.
Hannah Montana grossed $10.3 million in its second weekend, a non-holiday. That film's final domestic cume was $65.3 million.
Never Say Never should easily hit $60 million, and has a strong shot at $65 million.

Bieber Fever helps to brand Paramount's Insurge Pictures, a division designed to turn out low-budget films that have a strong social media component (it's already stuff of legend how Bieber was discovered through his YouTube videos). Never Say Never cost $13 million to produce, including the 3D component.

Paramount still hasn't said whether it will release an updated version of Never Say Never in theaters next weekend, a maverick move designed to encourage repeat business.
Chu has been working on the director's cut, in between traveling to Paris and London last week for the premieres of Never Say Never.

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