Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:Retaining the top spot for a second weekend, "Thor" held a better second weekend than most comic book adaptations tend to do and banked another $34.7 million domestically, raising its total to $119.5 million in 10 days. Traditionally, the comic book adaptation film loses more than half of its opening audience in a second weekend, but "Thor" lost just 47.2%. An encouraging figure as Paramount builds towards "X-Men: First Class" and "Captain America..." in the coming months.
As 'Thor" held well, the big story of the weekend was the huge opening for the Kristen Wiig-led "Bridesmaids", which exceeded even the most optimistic projections to score an impressive $26.2 million opening frame. Critics loved the film and audiences grew through the weekend as word-of-mouth spread on this being not just a knockoff of "The Hangover" or other similar R-rated ensemble comedies. Countless other outlets have written about the film's success and whether this is a gamechanger for Hollywood, but Nikki Finke at Deadline is on record as saying that many higher ups in rival studios wanted this film to fail. "Bridesmaids", budgeted at $32.5 million, is a moneymaker by Wednesday and will have virtually no opposition heading into its second weekend. If "Bridesmaids" can pull a second strong weekend, this might be well on its way to a $90-$100 million final haul.
"Priest", Paul Bettany's second film with director Scott Stewart, following 2010's "Legion", was underestimated slightly in its first weekend. Earning just under $15 million, while reportedly budgeted at $60 million, "Priest" may have suffered from its PG-13 rating appearing to be at at odds with its harsh and frightening subject matter and imagery. "Priest" opened on more screens and with a smaller sum than "Legion", which started north of $17 million in January 2010. Screen Gems may make this profitable with grosses from around the world, but not recouping the budget domestically will be a big disappointment. "Priest" looks to land in the $40-$45 million range stateside.
In a somewhat surprising development, "Rio" became the soup du jour for families who were seemingly lost in the shuffle with the recent openings targeting teens and young adults. "Rio" slid a negligible 2.7%, despite losing more than 300 locations from last weekend. In a fifth week, this type of drop of is almost unheard of and the film has made $125.2 million in North America and is chugging along to the tune of $429 million worldwide. "Rio" will lose screens and attendance with "Pirates of the Caribbean" arrives, but the film has another 10 days or so without true competition until the eagerly anticipated "Kung Fu Panda 2" arrives on May 26.
"Soul Surfer" continues to draw return business even as it loses more and more sites. Down just 20.8% this weekend, "Soul Surfer" may have a small take by appearances, $1.8 million, but on an $18 production budget, the film has been an impressive performer with 6 weeks in the Top 10 and overall take just under $40 million. The film has been given a July DVD date, which will be officially announced in the coming days.
Will Ferrell sells drama, a "Cave" finds new heights, and lots and lots of indie films try and stake a claim after the cut:
Opening with an acceptable haul of $825k at 218 locations, Will Ferrell's "Everything Must Go" performed adequately for Roadside Attractions. The drama, the third dramatic effort for the comedic superstar, earned one of the largest per screen averages amongst scaled down new releases ($3,724), but still did not come anywhere near expectations.
If "Everything Must Go" had a rather ho-hum style of an opening, then the much talked about Joseph Gordon-Leavitt project, "Hesher", offered a shoulder shrug in terms of its reception. Just crossing $3,000 per site, the film opened with $126k at 42 locations. Newcomers Wrekin Hill Entertainment had worked the film hard and tried to generate huge word-of-mouth in the months leading up the release, including receiving prominent articles on The Huffington Post and Yahoo! News, as well as with other underground music and film sites. Shot for $7 million, it will be interesting to see if the film can gain traction or stays small and lands less than $1 million in overall box office receipts.
Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" surged past $1 million in total receipts, earning another $427k, increasing 17%, and netting one of the largest per screen averages of the weekend. The film continues to draw huge buzz and IFC's rollout could not be going any better. At just 82 locations, "Cave" is closing in on Herzog's largest grossing documentary, "Grizzly Man", which grossed $3.2 million in 2005.
IFC Films had another glorious success with "L'Amour Fou", a documentary profiling fashion icon Yves Saint-Laurent and his longtime partner, Pierre Berge, and their life together, earned a staggering $37k on a mere two screens; easily earning the highest per screen average of any film from the weekend.
Elsewhere, "The First Grader", a fictionalized true story of an 84-year old Kenyan veteran who wants to enroll in public education started impressively, earning $20k at 3 locations.
In the third of a series of Lionsgate released Latin-themed film projects, "Go For It!" was ignored by everyone, amassing a mere $120k at 218 locations for a sad $549 per site average. Following "From Prada To Nada" ($3.0 million) and "No Eres Tu, Soy Yo" ($1.3 million), "Go For It!" may prove that these films are not interesting to the targeted audience. Lionsgate may have to rethink the films they have tapped for this series and go back to the boardroom, as no one went for it in this regard.
The turtle slow rollouts continued for "Meek's Cutoff", "The Double Hour" and "Incendies" and all had more and more strong increases. All three films increased significantly as more people had a chance to see them, with Meek's gaining 58% ($345k total), "Double Hour" rising 32% ($382k total), and "Incendies" surging 116% ($380k total).
THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN
#1 Film - "Thor", earned $34.7 million
Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "Iron Man 2", held for a second weekend with $52.0 million
Biggest Per Screen Average: "Bridesmaids", $8,995 at 2,918 locations ($26.2 million cumulative)
Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "No Eres Tu, Soy Yo", $498 at 50 locations ($25k, $1.3 million cumulative)
Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "No Eres Tu, Soy Yo", +72.9%
Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "There Be Dragons", -79.8%
Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 11
Films Which Surpassed $100m: N/A
Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend: "Prom"
The Top 40, with other notables!
| TW | LW | DAY | FILM | WKD | TOTAL | % CHG |
| 1 | 1 | 10 | Thor | $34.7m | $119.5m | -47.2 |
| 2 | N | 3 | Bridesmaids | $26.2m | $26.2m | New |
| 3 | 2 | 17 | Fast Five | $20.4m | $169.7m | -37.0 |
| 4 | N | 3 | Priest | $15.0m | $15.0m | New |
| 5 | 5 | 31 | Rio | $8.3m | $125.2m | -2.7 |
| 6 | 3 | 10 | Jumping The Broom | $7.1m | $25.8m | -53.6 |
| 7 | 4 | 10 | Something Borrowed | $6.9m | $25.5m | -50.7 |
| 8 | 6 | 24 | Water For Elephants | $4.2m | $48.6m | -30.8 |
| 9 | 7 | 24 | Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family | $2.2m | $50.2m | -47.0 |
| 10 | 8 | 38 | Soul Surfer | $1.8m | $39.2m | -20.8 |
| 11 | 10 | 17 | Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil | $1.2m | $8.6m | -43.6 |
| 12 | 11 | 45 | Insidious | $958k | $51.7m | -28.4 |
| 13 | 9 | 17 | Prom | $939k | $9.0m | -57.6 |
| 14 | 12 | 45 | Source Code | $837k | $52.2m | -32.7 |
| 15 | N | 3 | Everything Must Go | $825k | $825k | New |
| 16 | 13 | 24 | African Cats | $667k | $14.0m | -37.4 |
| 17 | 14 | 38 | Hanna | $597k | $38.6m | -28.6 |
| 18 | 24 | 17 | Cave Of Forgotten Dreams | $472k | $1.3m | +17.1 |
| 19 | 17 | 31 | The Conspirator | $464k | $10.5m | -24.9 |
| 20 | 18 | 59 | Win Win | $405k | $8.9m | -23.4 |
| 21 | 20 | 45 | Hop | $402k | $106.9m | -19.0 |
| 22 | 21 | 59 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $398k | $56.1m | -14.6 |
| 23 | 20 | 59 | Limitless | $358k | $77.6m | -26.3 |
| 24 | 23 | 66 | Jane Eyre | $337k | $10.0m | -21.0 |
| 25 | 25 | 38 | Born To Be Wild IMAX | $324k | $4.8m | +11.8 |
| 26 | 27 | 52 | Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules | $291k | $51.6m | +32.2 |
| 27 | 16 | 31 | Scream 4 | $277k | $37.5m | -60.5 |
| 28 | 22 | 73 | Rango | $258k | $120.8m | -40.6 |
| 29 | 28 | 38 | Arthur | $238k | $32.6m | +8.9 |
| 30 | 32 | 66 | Battle: Los Angeles | $187k | $83.3m | -0.9 |
| 31 | 29 | 94 | Gnomeo And Juliet | $182k | $99.3m | -15.3 |
| 32 | 26 | 73 | The Adjustment Bureau | $169k | $62.3m | -40.0 |
| 33 | 36 | 10 | The Beaver | $161k | $312k | +49.8 |
| 34 | 15 | 10 | There Be Dragons | $142k | $973k | -79.8 |
| 35 | 47 | 24 | Incendies | $135k | $380k | +116.0 |
| 36 | N | 3 | Hesher | $126k | $126k | New |
| 37 | 31 | 31 | Atlas Shrugged Part I | $125k | $4.6m | -36.7 |
| 38 | N | 3 | Go For It! | $120k | $120k | New |
| 39 | 33 | 87 | I Am | $109k | $1.1m | -41.9 |
| 40 | 43 | 31 | The Double Hour | $107k | $382k | +32.8 |
BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:
42. “Hubble 3D”, $105k, $24.8m total, +27.9%
43. “Meek's Cutoff”, $97k, $345k total, +58.1%
52. “13 Assassins”, $53k, $202k, +9.0%
57. “L'Amour Fou”, $37k, New
