After a narrow victory on Friday, Prometheus had to accept defeat at the hand of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted by the end of the weekend. Meanwhile Snow White and the Huntsman took a bit of a dive in 3rd place, raising a serious question mark over its already announced sequel.
In the last 3 weekends we’ve had no less than 4 consecutive films open above $50 million, something we don’t get to see too often. The biggest of those was Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted thanks to a $60.3 million debut, just $2.8 million shy of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa‘s start. I was honestly expecting less from this film but now that I think about it more, it makes sense. Since The Pirates! Band of Misfits almost 2 months ago, there has been no other animated film and we’re already well into June. So a strong demand for such a feature was clearly there and Madagascar 3 took full advantage of that. But in just 10 days Pixar, the only animation studio with a perfect track record at the box office, brings Brave into theaters. Will demand still be there?
Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, was a solid 2nd with $51 million. That’s the 10th highest R-rated opening weekend and the biggest ever for the Alien franchise, even adjusted for inflation. Although don’t expect Prometheus to have the kind of box office legs that propelled the original Alien (1979) to $249.1 million (adjusted for inflation, unadjusted the number is $78.9 million). When all is said and done, this film will probably have around $150 million in North America. Prometheus is said to have cost $130 million.
Snow White and the Huntsman had 3rd place, down $59% to $23 million and a 10-day total of $98.5 million. Considering the $170 million budget, I’m starting to wonder why Universal decided to move ahead with a sequel; maybe they expect the international market to save their ass again?
4th was Men in Black 3, down 50.5% with $13.8 million and $135.9 million so far. At the same 17-day mark Men in Black 2 had $148 million. These short legs won’t take Men in Black 3 further than $165 million in North America.
Rounding out the top 5 for the very last time is The Avengers, down 45.1%, $11.2 million. After 38 days in theaters, The Avengers has accumulated $572.3 million and I’m now certain it won’t reach $600 million fast enough to take that record away from Avatar (47 days).
Finally a little film called The Hunger Games managed to finally hit the $400 million mark. It took no less then 80 days to reach that number, making it the 11th fastest (out of 11). That really is something since none of the Harry Potter films, arguably based on much more popular novels, got this high in North America.
