Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, and other sources:Animated family musical adventure "Rio" held its estimated #1 ranking when actual numbers were calculated from the Easter weekend box office. Grossing $26.3 million, "Rio" held off Tyler Perry's latest ensemble film, "Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family", which amassed $25.1 million to land in second place. "Rio" continued its incredible worldwide run where the film has banked $206 million overseas. Nearing $300 million in total gross after just 3 weeks is an impressive feat.
"...Madea..." was the 6th film to feature Tyler Perry as his cross-dressing grandmother character and continued the trend of Perry films not being screened for critics in advance of their release. At this point, the brand has been built and Perry's franchise now guarantees openings on par with this one. Perry's latest opened on more screens than any of his other films to date, appearing at 2,288 sites. All in all, this was the fourth best opening for a Perry-directed film and if history holds, "...Madea..." will have a decent second weekend and then likely drop substantially in its third weekend.
The romantic drama "Water For Elephants" was overestimated and came in at $16.8 million, which tempered excitement slightly. If "Water" can hold a good second weekend audience, the film could finish in the $50 million range for its total box office run; a vast improvement over Pattinson's "Remember Me" which earned a mere $19.1 million in the spring of 2010. For Reese Witherspoon, the film served as her biggest opening since the 2008 holiday comedy "Four Christmases" ($31.2 million to start) and matched her 2005 romantic dramedy, "Just Like Heaven", which started at $16.4 million.
DisneyNature's third straight Easter weekend release, "African Cats" landed in 6th place with a $6.0 million start, which with actual receipts counted was nearly identical to last year's opening frame for "Oceans". It is hard to tell if Disney is happy that this opening matched "Oceans", which seemed a disappointment last year when compared to "Earth"'s success in 2009. "African Cats" should fall just short of $20 million when it completes its overall run.
"Scream" is silenced, "Atlas..." does indeed shrug, "I Am" takes a stand and more analysis after the cut:
"Scream 4" suffered the second biggest dropoff of the weekend, hemorrhaging 62% of its audience in its second weekend. Horror films typically drop big in their second weekend, but this was a staggering fall and makes it even more of a box office dud than originally anticipated.
"Atlas Shrugged Part I" lost nearly half of its audience after expanding into 166 more locations. The film raised some eyebrows with its $1.7 million opening last weekend and those who dared estimate its second weekend, where all over the map with projections. Ultimately, the interest was not there and the film plummeted to $881k. The film's expansion was the largest of the weekend, making its diminished returns a major disappointment for Rocky Mountain Films and those eagerly awaiting Parts II and III.
On the flipside, Tom Shadyac's "I Am" built on a much-talked about appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and tiny distributor Paladin Pictures pushed the film into 11 new sites, showing it at 24 locations. The reaction was staggering as the film grossed $131k and gained 522.6% in total audience. The introspective documentary is resonating with audiences and has already become 5:1, Paladin's highest grossing film in their 4-year existence. Already in theaters for 10 weeks, this film looks to continue its rollout and might be around for quite a while.
"I Am"'s success rained on the parade of Morgan Spurlock's anticipated third documentary, "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold". Spurlock's film opened at a fair $118k on 18 screens, besting the $102k opening his "Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?" had on 102 screens in 2008.
Oscar-nominated "Incendies" (Best Foreign Language Film) had the best per screen average of the weekend, grossing just under $51k at 3 locations. The film opened to rave reviews once critics were able to finally weigh in on the film.
"Meek's Cutoff" expanded to 6 locations and improved over 150% from the previous weekend. Oscilloscope has been arguably too cautious in letting people see the much talked about film and the film has earned $88k in 17 days of release.
THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN
#1 Film - "Rio", earned $26.3 million
Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "How To Train Your Dragon", earned $15.4 million
Biggest Per Screen Average: "Incendies", $16,893 at 3 locations ($51k cumulative)
Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "The Last Lions", $130 at 59 locations ($7,683,
$625k cumulative)
Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never", +279.1%
Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "Tangled", -63.3%
Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 16
Films Which Surpassed $100m: "Hop"
Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend: "Hanna"
The Top 40, with other notables!
| TW | LW | DAY | FILM (STUDIO) | WKD | TOTAL | % CHG |
| 1 | 1 | 10 | Rio (20th Century Fox) | $26.3m | $80.8m | -32.9 |
| 2 | N | 3 | Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family (Lionsgate) | $25.1m | $25.1m | New |
| 3 | N | 3 | Water For Elephants (20th Century Fox) | $16.8m | $16.8m | New |
| 4 | 3 | 24 | Hop (Universal) | $12.2m | $100.2m | +13.7 |
| 5 | 2 | 10 | Scream 4 (Weinstein/Dimension) | $7.0m | $31.0m | -62.4 |
| 6 | N | 3 | African Cats (Buena Vista) | $6.0m | $6.0m | New |
| 7 | 5 | 17 | Soul Surfer (TriStar/FilmDistrict) | $5.4m | $28.5m | -25.2 |
| 8 | 4 | 17 | Hanna (Focus) | $5.3m | $31.7m | -27.3 |
| 9 | 7 | 24 | Insidious (FilmDistrict) | $5.2m | $44.0m | -22.8 |
| 10 | 8 | 24 | Source Code (Summit) | $5.1m | $44.7m | -18.0 |
| 11 | 6 | 17 | Arthur (Warner Bros.) | $4.1m | $29.2m | -39.8 |
| 12 | 10 | 38 | Limitless (Relativity) | $2.7m | $74.0m | -27.2 |
| 13 | 11 | 10 | The Conspirator (Roadside Attractions) | $2.2m | $6.9m | -37.5 |
| 14 | 12 | 38 | The Lincoln Lawyer (Lionsgate) | $1.8m | $53.4m | -38.0 |
| 15 | 9 | 17 | Your Highness (Universal) | $1.7m | $19.8m | -57.5 |
| 16 | 15 | 38 | Win Win (Fox Searchlight) | $1.1m | $6.6m | -13.2 |
| 17 | 13 | 31 | Diary Of A Wimpy Kid...Rodrick Rules (20th Century Fox) | $933k | $50.3m | -55.2 |
| 18 | 14 | 10 | Atlas Shrugged Part I (Rocky Mountain) | $881k | $3.1m | -47.8 |
| 19 | 16 | 45 | Jane Eyre (Focus) | $737k | $7.9m | -25.8 |
| 20 | 18 | 17 | Born To Be Wild IMAX (Warner Bros.) | $653k | $3.1m | +4.5 |
| 21 | 17 | 52 | Rango (Paramount) | $386k | $119.5m | -46.0 |
| 22 | 22 | 73 | Gnomeo And Juliet (Buena Vista) | $335k | $98.3m | -17.8 |
| 23 | 19 | 31 | Sucker Punch (Warner Bros.) | $279k | $35.9m | -54.0 |
| 24 | 23 | 52 | The Adjustment Bureau (Universal) | $247k | $61.1m | -30.7 |
| 25 | 21 | 38 | Paul (Universal) | $243k | $36.6m | -50.0 |
| 26 | 20 | 45 | Battle: Los Angeles (Sony) | $204k | $82.6m | -59.8 |
| 27 | 24 | 73 | Just Go With It (Sony) | $198k | $102.6m | -26.7 |
| 28 | 25 | 24 | The King's Speech PG-13 (Weinstein Co.) | $197k | $2.9m | -22.5 |
| 29 | 31 | 45 | Red Riding Hood (Warner Bros.) | $187k | $37.2m | +47.9 |
| 30 | 42 | 66 | I Am Number Four (Buena Vista) | $185k | $54.4m | +179.6 |
| 31 | 32 | 402 | Hubble 3D (Warner Bros.) | $159k | $24.2m | +46.1 |
| 32 | 30 | 59 | Of Gods And Men (Sony Classics) | $147k | $3.2m | -3.7 |
| 33 | 27 | 59 | Hall Pass (Warner Bros./New Line) | $133k | $44.9m | -43.2 |
| 34 | 56 | 66 | I Am (Paladin) | $131k | $557k | +522.6 |
| 35 | N | 3 | POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Sony Classics) | $118k | $118k | New |
| 36 | 26 | 17 | No Eres Tu, Soy Yo (Lionsgate) | $116k | $1.2m | -52.7 |
| 37 | 28 | 66 | Unknown (Warner Bros.) | $91k | $63.6m | -46.8 |
| 38 | 41 | 52 | Beastly (CBS Films) | $90k | $27.6m | +28.5 |
| 39 | 37 | 38 | Bill Cunningham New York (Zeitgeist) | $90k | $689k | +14.7 |
| 40 | 34 | 66 | Big Mommas... (20th Century Fox) | $75k | $37.7m | -12.6 |
BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:
41. “In A Better World” (Sony Classics), $73k, $292k total, +1.0%
42. “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” (Paramount), $67k, $72.8m total, +279.1%
44. “Incendies” (Sony Classics), $51k, NEW
46. “Super” (IFC), $48k, $211k total, +24.6%
