1. The Lorax- $39.1M/$122M
Slipping a mere 44% from last week, The Lorax continues to (supposedly) turn America's kids against planet destroying corporations at an incredible pace. With not much to steal away the family audience for a few weeks(The Hunger Games doesn't really count), Universal could be looking at almost a month of strong returns.
2. John Carter- $30.6M
A $30M opening weekend would be cause for joyous celebration for most films, but when you're Disney and you've spent the last two months defending the bloated John Carter budget, it's a flat out disaster. With numbers floating between $250M-$300M, Disney has been engaged in a desperate ad campaign to try and make this film look appealing to....somebody. The Edgar Rice Burroughs fan club is a rather small base(nobody reads anymore, guys!), and unfortunately the film looked too much like every other sci-fi film out there. This also doesn't bode well for Taylor Kitsch as a leading man since it was his face(and bare chest) that was used to hype it. He'll probably recover in a few weeks when Battleship comes out, but that's not truly his movie.
3. Project X- $11.6M/$40.1M
With an initial investment of around $12M and already having grossed nearly four times that amount, it's no wonder a sequel is in the works.
4. Silent House- $7.01M
Opening at just over 2100 theaters, Silent House failed to hook the core horror audience despite the gimmick "single camera" selling point, and rising star Elizabeth Olsen as the headliner. She's more of a critical favorite right now than an actual box office draw. The interesting thing is how this film underperformed in the wake of a low budget, low star power genre flick like The Devil Inside. Maybe we really are entering a time when "found footage" isn't merely a way for studios to save money, but is desirable to audiences?
5. Act of Valor- $7M/$56.1M
6. A Thousand Words- $6.35M
Ironically, the less said about A Thousand Words the better. Completed more than three years ago and unceremoniously dumped to capitalize on...what, Tower Heist? A Thousand Words opened at less than 1900 theaters and wasn't expected to do much, and it didn't.
7. Safe House- $4.95M/$116M
8. The Vow- $4M/$118M
9. This Means War- $3.75M/$46.9M
10. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island-$3.69M/$90.7M
Opening in only 370 theaters, Jennifer Westfeldt's comedy Friends with Kids performed admirably with $2.2M. That's about $5800 per site, and bodes well for the film which has done a good job of putting the Bridesmaids heavy supporting cast front and center.
