The toons take the lead.
Slump? What slump? Here are the projected numbers, courtesy of Deadline:
1. Madagascar 3 (DreamWorks Anim/Paramount) NEW [4,258 Theaters] PG
Friday $20.4M, Saturday $22M, Weekend $59.6M
2. Prometheus (Fox) NEW [3,396 Theaters] R
Friday $21.4M, Saturday $16.4M, Weekend $49.5M
3. Snow White & The Huntsman (Universal) Week 2 [3,777 Theaters] PG13
Friday $7.5M, Saturday $9.1M, Weekend $22.9M (-60%), Cume $98.5M
4. Men In Black 3 (Sony) Week 3 [3,792 Theaters] PG13
Friday $4.2M, Saturday $6.1M, Weekend $14.2M, Cume $136.2M
5. The Avengers (Marvel/Disney) Week 6 [3,129 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.3M, Saturday $4.8M, Weekend $11.2M, Cume $572.3M
There was never any question that “Madagascar 3″ would open well. Not only is it a popular established franchise, but there also has been a real lack of pure kids’ movies this spring and early summer. Yes, I’m sure many kids went to “The Avengers,” but I mean the honest to goodness movies you can take your 4-8 year olds to without fears of starting nightmares. There was “The Lorax” in early March and “Pirates! Band of Misfits” in late April and that’s pretty much been it, so I would imagine there were a lot of parents of young children who were relieved to be able to just go to a movie this weekend. And they were happy with what they saw–the sequel got an A Cinemascore.
The predicted dominance of “Madagascar 3″ had led Fox to really lower expectations for “Prometheus,” lower them to a ridiculous point, actually–$30-35 million, despite the big opening overseas last week. So the movie over-delivered easily with a big Friday. The dropoff from Friday to Saturday, though, indicates that word of mouth wasn’t great; indeed, the film got a B Cinemascore. Not awful, but not like, “You have GOT to see this movie!” Still, the box office numbers are nothing to sneer at, especially considering it is an R-rated sci-fi film with the director having the biggest star name. It will be interesting to see how it holds up over the coming weeks.
“Snow White and the Huntsman” held up reasonably well, “The Avengers” keeps making money, and “The Hunger Games” passed the $400 million mark sometime this weekend. All in all, Hollywood should be happy.
Next week: “Rock of Ages” tries to prove that musicals can make it at the box office and “That’s My Boy” tries to prove that audiences still, despite all he has wrought, hate Adam Sandler.
