--- title: 'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star description: If America were still a place where only white people counted, as some Nativists might wish, this weekend's no. 1 movie would have been the... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-22T01:24:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T05:06:54.174Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star og:description: If America were still a place where only white people counted, as some Nativists might wish, this weekend's no. 1 movie would have been the... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b4e65a95b8721a7/698a8d789862f5410789b240/ride-along-kevin-hart.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Film Review Ride Along og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star twitter:description: If America were still a place where only white people counted, as some Nativists might wish, this weekend's no. 1 movie would have been the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b4e65a95b8721a7/698a8d789862f5410789b240/ride-along-kevin-hart.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # 'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 22, 2014 1:24 AM UTC  This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ice Cube, left, and Kevin Hart in a scene from "Ride Along." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures) This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ice Cube, left, and Kevin Hart in a scene from "Ride Along." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures) AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 22, 2014 1:24 AM UTC If America were still a place where only white people counted, as some Nativists might wish, this weekend’s no. 1 movie would have been the animated feature _The Nut Job_ or the espionage thriller _Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit_. But the U.S. film audience is a rainbow coalition, at least for an action comedy with an African-American actor bursting to stardom. _Ride Along_, with Kevin Hart as a wannabe policeman schooled by veteran cop Ice Cube in the grosser points of patrolling the Atlanta streets, set a Jan. box-office record at North American theaters with $41.5 million for the three days of the weekend and $48.6 million for the full four-day Martin Luther King holiday. In raw numbers, that beats the previous champ, the found-footage monster movie _Cloverfield_ in 2008 — though, in real dollars, _Cloverfield’_s three-day $40 million would be $46.5 million today, and its four-day $46.1 million would be $53.5 million. **(READ: Corliss’s** [**review of** **_Ride Along_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/15/ride-along-kevin-hart-small-cop/)**)** Either way, the sensational figures provide evidence that Hart, the 5ft.2in. bantam of belligerence, is about to be a big star, if he isn’t already. An energetic supporting player in such movies as _Little Fockers_, _Think Like a Man_ and _Grudge Match_, Hart broke out in 2011 with his concert film _Laugh at My_ [_Pain_](http://topics.time.com/pain/), which grossed $7.7 million on no budget at all, then certified his standup clout with last year’s _Let Me Explain_, which earned $32.2 million, for the highest comedy concert film revenue since the $50.4 million for _Eddie Murphy Raw_ in 1987\. In his spare time, Hart produces and stars in his BET reality-show parody, _Real Husbands of Hollywood_, the highest-rated cable sitcom among adults 18 to 49\. Chris Rock once told him, “I’m famous. You’re black famous” — a star only to audiences of color. If _Ride Along_ is any guide, Hart is about to become Famous. **(READ: TIME’s** [**review of** **_Think Like a Man_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/04/19/think-like-a-man-men-and-women-behaving-bedly/)**)** Yet the demographic data indicate that the PG-13-rated _Ride Along_ is less a blockbuster than a bl_a_ckbuster. Its weekend audience was 50% African-American, 30% Hispanic and only 12% Caucasian. So whites bought only about $5 million worth of _Ride Along_ tickets, far less than they did for either _Jack Ryan_ or _The Nut Job_. For a buddy-cop movie, _Ride Along_ also skewed interestingly female (57%) and a tad older than expected (54% over 25); early viewers gave it a sterling “A” rating in the CinemaScore survey. The film, which cost just $25 million to produce, should entice a more diverse crowd as word of its earthy merits spreads. Then we’ll see if Kevin Hart can become just plain famous — or Eddie Murphy famous — without doing a buddy-cop movie with a white star. **(READ: Joel Stein’s** [**profile of Kevin Hart**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2146440,00.html)**)** The budget for _Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit_ was about $60 million, or more than twice that of _Ride Along_, yet it opened to well under half of the Hart movie’s gross: $15.5 million for three days, $18 million for four. Chris Pine, who took over the Tom Clancy spy role previously occupied by [Alec Baldwin](http://topics.time.com/alec-baldwin/) (in _The Hunt for Red October_), Harrison Ford (in _Patriot Games_ and _Clear and Present Danger_) and Ben Affleck (in _The Sum of All Fears_), may play the young James Kirk in the _Star Trek_ reboot, but he is not a movie star. He’s not even white famous. **(READ: Mary Pols on** [**the 2009** **_Star Trek_** **reboot**](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1896513,00.html)**)** A perfectly efficient CIA thriller, _Shadow Recruit_ opened at a lower three-day figure than any of its Ryan predecessors, including the $17.7 million earned 24 years ago by _The Hunt for Red October_, which went on to a $200-million global gross. (The four earlier Clancy films earned nearly $800 million worldwide.) The early audience for _JR:SR_ was 52% male and a geriatric 85% over the age of 25; it received a “B” (as in blah) CinemaScore. If this origins saga is to be a true revival and not an exhumation, it will need to be monster-big abroad. **(READ: Corliss’s** [**review of** **_Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/15/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-plain-and-clancy/)**)** Taking a frost-bite out of _Frozen_, the squirrels of _The Nut Job_ landed in third place over the weekend and pushed the Disney princess movie down to fifth after a strong Dec. and early Jan. run; in less than two months, _Frozen_ has crossed $750 million worldwide to become one of the Disney studio’s all-time winners. A coproduction from [Canada](http://topics.time.com/canada/) and South Korea, _The Nut Job_ cost just $42 million and pulled a CinemaScore of B — both very low for an animated feature. Another Jan. dump job, the found-footage horror film _Devil’s Due_, managed less than $10 million for the full holiday weekend, and an abysmal CinemaScore of D-plus — or, as its producers might spin it, “D _plus_!” **(SEE:** [**Disney princesses, from** **_Snow White_** **to** **_Frozen_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/27/14-disney-princesses-and-the-actresses-who-voiced-them/)**)** Moviegoers in search of “A” fare might have visited one of the films nominated last Thu. for an Oscar. But the week of nonstop awards hype, from the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice and the Screen Actors Guild awards, all televised like the announcement of the Academy shortlist, saw little payoff at the box office. _American Hustle_ was the only Best Picture nominee to get an Oscar jolt: up 19% from last week, to $9.9 million, though playing in 425 fewer theaters. **(READ:** [**_American Hustle_** **vs.** **_12 Years a Slave_** **battle at the Oscars**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/16/oscar-nominations-slave-tussles-with-hustle/)**)** _The Wolf of Wall Street_ lost 20% of its screens and 20% of its business. Spike Jonze’s _her_ held its theater count but fell 25%. And none of the other Best Picture finalists cracked $2 million for the three days: not _Gravity_ (back in 944 venues for $1.9 million) or _12 Years a Slave_ ($1.5 million in 761 theaters) or _Philomena_ ($1.3 million in 505) or _Dallas Buyers Club_ ($941,207 in 419) or _Nebraska_ (883,208 in 408) or _Captain Phillips_ ($523,771 in 903). **(READ:** [**Why** **_Gravity_** **won’t win the Best Picture Oscar**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/21/oscar-race-gravity-rockets-into-the-favored-tier-but-can-it-win/)**)** Some of these films have played successfully for months. _Gravity_ has grossed more than $250 million, _American Hustle_ and _Captain Phillips_ more than $100 million; and those two will soon be joined by _The Wolf of Wall Street_. Other nominees, like _Philomena_, _Dallas_ and _Nebraska_, will be happy to earn $20 million to $30 million in their total theatrical runs. But none got a sizable Oscar bump — not this weekend, when the big attraction was the little guy from Philly. He’ll remember the 2014 Martin Luther King holiday as that magic Hollywood moment when he went from “Who’s Kevin Hart?” to “Get me Kevin Hart!” Here are the actual figures for this holiday weekend’s top-grossing pictures in North American theaters, with totals for Friday-to-Sunday (three days), and Friday-to-Monday (four days), as reported today by [Box Office Mojo](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2013&wknd=03&p=.htm): 1\. _Ride Along_, $41.5 million, first three days; $48.6 million, first four days 2\. _Lone Survivor_, $22.1 million, three days; $25.9 million; $77.2 million, second week 3\. _The Nut Job_, $19.4 million, first three days; $25.7 million, first four days 4\. _Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit_, $15.5 million, first three days; $18 million, first four days 5\. _Frozen_, $11.8 million, three days; $16.1 million; $336.9 million, ninth week 6\. _American Hustle_, $9.9 million, three days; $11.8 million, four days; $117.3 million, sixth week 7\. _Devil’s Due_, $8.3 million, first three days; $9.1 million, first four days 8\. _August: Osage County_, $7.4 million, three days; $8.8 million; $19.5 million, fourth week 9\. _The Wolf of Wall Street_, $7.1 million, three days; $8.4 million, four days; $91.1 million, fourth week 10\. _her_, $4 million, three days; $4.8 million, four days; $15.7 million, fifth week ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/"},"headline":"'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star","datePublished":"2014-01-22T01:24:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T05:06:54.174Z","description":"If America were still a place where only white people counted, as some Nativists might wish, this weekend's no. 1 movie would have been the...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b4e65a95b8721a7/698a8d789862f5410789b240/ride-along-kevin-hart.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b4e65a95b8721a7/698a8d789862f5410789b240/ride-along-kevin-hart.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Film Review Ride Along","caption":"Film Review Ride Along","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7114901/ride-along-makes-kevin-hart-a-big-movie-star/","name":"'Ride Along' Makes Kevin Hart a Big Movie Star"}}]}] ```