1. Brave- $66.7M
13 feature films. 13 #1 opening weekends. Pixar is unquestionably the most consistent and reliable studio out there, proving that they are all but untouchable at the box office. Brave marked an interesting departure for the company, taking on their first female protagonist in a rather traditional fairy tale format, and it seems to have paid off. Brave's opening is the fourth highest in the company's history, just ahead of last year's underrated(yeah I said it) Cars 2. A big part of it had to be word of mouth, as the studio kept a good deal of the plot hidden away, but those who saw it noted the strong mother/daughter connection at the heart of the story, helping it to earn an 'A' CinemaScore.
2. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted- $20.2M/$157.6M
Surprising that Madagascar 3 held on to so much business in the face of Brave's onslaught, only slipping about 40% from last week. A good deal of that probably has to do with losing some 3D theaters to Pixar's film as well. Still, it's a strong hold and on a global scale is closing in on $400M. Not too shabby.
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter- $16.5M
Talk about an enthusiasm gap. For all the buzz surrounding Timur Bekmambetov and Tim Burton's silly history/horror mash-up, clearly it was only by young dudes who thought the premise sounded cool. Apparently nobody else was all that excited by it. Women and families ruled this week, and ol' Honest Abe and his trusty ax was thoroughly embarrassed by Brave's mighty box office bow. It's hard to gauge what the expectation for a film like this was. The eye-catching title aside, there are no doubt many who felt like this was a film that should be debuting on cable television or DVD. And since nobody has heard of star Benjamin Walker, little could be done to change their minds. A mediocre 'C+' Cinemascore doesn't bode well for its long term prospects, either.
4. Prometheus- $10M/$108.5M
5. Rock of Ages- $8M/$28.8M
Held on pretty well, only dropping 44%, but clearly this is a flop in just about every way you slice it.
6. Snow White and the Huntsman- $8M/$137.1M
7. That's My Boy- $7.9M/$28.2M
8. The Avengers- $7.04M/$598.3M
Only slipping 20% from last week, it's conceivable that The Avengers is going to be around for the entire summer. By next week it'll likely be earning more than half the films in the Top 10 right now.
9. Men in Black 3- $5.6M/$163.3M
10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World- $3.8M
Well, I blame marketing for this disaster. Lorene Scafaria's film undoubtedly is a touch depressing, but it's also quite hopeful and funny. Unfortunately the TV spots and trailers don't play up that aspect of the film, counting instead on the likability of Steve Carell and Keira Knightley to carry the load. Obviously that was a huge mistake. Opening at just over 1600 theaters, it didn't even perform well on a per-site average as many would have expected. Some marketing dude really screwed the pooch on this one, and a great film will now go mostly ignored.
