USA Box Office Returns for the weekend : Pirates On Top

USA Box Office Returns for the weekend starting 20 May 2011

1.Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
2.Bridesmaids
3.Thor
4.Fast Five
5.Priest
6.Rio
7.Jumping the Broom
8.Something Borrowed
9.Water for Elephants
10.Madea's Big Happy Family

Highest total gross From Release Date:  Fast Five
Highest per-Theatre average:  Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Box Office Results: Fast Five is First in Hollywood Movie Race

Universal's "Fast Five" sped past "Thor" to regain the overseas box office crown last weekend.

In its third week of international play, "Five" posted a stellar $85.8 million from 58 reported countries. Paramount's "Thor" dropped to second place with $45 million from 57 markets outside the U.S.

The tentpole pair has been battling at the foreign wickets since launching the weekend of April 21 in select territories. In its debut frame, "Fast Five" bowed in just four markets, including the U.K. and Australia; "Thor" bowed head-to-head with "Fast" in Oz. Both pics expanded the following weekend, though "Thor" had a leg up with more new territories than "Fast" in the pair's soph sesh.

Now, with both films having launched in almost the same number of markets, "Fast Five" is on top with $184.5 million vs. a total $176.1 million for "Thor."

Landing in third place was 20th Century Fox's 3D toon holdover "Rio," which continued to play nicely as well-timed family counterprogramming to "Thor" and "Fast Five." "Rio" tallied $15.9 million more in its fifth week of overseas playtime, lifting its international cume to $290.1 million. The toon has proven to be an indispensable feather in Fox's overseas cap this year, helping the studio be the first to reach $1 billion in total 2011 box office grosses internationally.

As summer heats up, other majors should soon hit that same mark: Par and U both have a headstart with their respective tentpoles "Thor" and "Fast Five."

Last weekend, "Fast Five" ranked tops in every major market where it opened, including record-breaking perfs in Mexico and Brazil. In Mexico, the pic opened with $8.6 million, which repped 55% of the total local marketshare, and stands as U's biggest three-day opening ever in that market. The same for Brazil, where "Fast Five" tallied $5 million (with 41% marketshare) -- at the same level as Par's Brazilian opening of "Thor."

In fact, "Fast Five" broke U opening records all over Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Uruguay.

Beyond Latin America, the car-heist installment also took the top spots in European markets like France and Italy, where it grossed $8.8 million and $7.4 million, respectively. Pic's opening take in Gaul beat "Thor" by 17%; Italo auds also preferred "Fast Five," which outpaced "Thor's" opening there by 56%.

Par, however, isn't too shaken up by "Thor's" losses to "Fast Five," since the comicbook pic has done exceptionally well in English-speaking territories such as Australia and the U.K.

In Blighty, "Thor" held strongly on to the No. 1 spot with $3.2 million, down 39% in its soph sesh, with a local cume of $15.8 million. Meanwhile, pic's Oz weekend take was off 46% at $1.8 million, bringing the film's cume there to $16.2 million after three weeks.

But it was China that contributed the film's largest take of any new markets, posting $2.3 million from 4,900 locations. That's just from one day, however, since the film opened in China on a Sunday.

Fox's toon "Rio" came in third behind the weekend's winning duo in its top two markets: France and Brazil. Toon's $2.3 million weekend take in Gaul brought its local tally to $18.9 million, while Brazilian auds continued to support the toon, shelling out $1.9 million for a cume of $38.4 million. "Rio" now stands as the third-highest grossing animated feature in Brazil, behind "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and "Shrek Forever After."

In India, "Rio" surpassed homegrown toon "Hanuman" to become the territory's biggest animated film ever -- but with a modest benchmark of just $2.4 million.

While "Rio" already has opened virtually everywhere around the globe, Par and U still have some major markets where their pics have yet to bow. "Thor" is slated to open in Japan on July 2; "Fast Five" has five markets yet to bow, starting with China on May 12, then Venezuela on June 3. Japanese auds won't get "Fast Five" until October.

Emilio Mayorga in Barcelona, Ed Meza in Berlin, David Hayhurst in Paris, Nick Vivarelli in Rome and Mark Schilling in Tokyo contributed to this report.

US Box Office Results Today

Films are ranked in order of total domestic three-day (Friday-Sunday) ticket sales -- the dollar amount listed after each film's title and distributor -- followed by number of theater locations, average receipts per location and then total gross and number of weeks in release.

1. "Rio," Fox, $26,323,321, 3,842 locations, $6,851 average, $80,806,562, two weeks.

2. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family," Lionsgate, $25,068,677, 2,288 locations, $10,957 average, $25,068,677, one week.

3. "Water For Elephants," Fox, $16,842,353, 2,817 locations, $5,979 average, $16,842,353, one week.

4. "Hop," Universal, $12,185,905, 3,616 locations, $3,370 average, $100,224,905, four weeks.

5. "Scream 4," Weinstein Co., $7,030,747, 3,314 locations, $2,122 average, $31,035,010, two weeks.

6. "African Cats," Disney, $6,003,200, 1,220 locations, $4,921 average, $6,003,200, one week.

7. "Soul Surfer," Sony, $5,436,868, 2,240 locations, $2,427 average, $28,502,151, three weeks.

8. "Hanna," Focus, $5,276,801, 2,384 locations, $2,213 average, $31,717,987, three weeks.

9. "Insidious," Film District, $5,207,622, 2,130 locations, $2,445 average, $44,001,416, four weeks.

10. "Source Code," Summit, $5,091,347, 2,363 locations, $2,155 average, $44,692,591, four weeks.

11. "Arthur," Warner Bros., $4,066,109, 2,770 locations, $1,468 average, $29,216,091, three weeks.

12. "Limitless," Relativity Media, $2,664,461, 1,363 locations, $1,955 average, $74,002,055, six weeks.

13. "The Conspirator," Roadside Attractions, $2,190,440, 849 locations, $2,580 average, $6,893,123, two weeks.

14. "The Lincoln Lawyer," Lionsgate, $1,789,519, 1,220 locations, $1,467 average, $53,381,451, six weeks.

15. "Your Highness," Universal, $1,706,590, 1,610 locations, $1,060 average, $19,764,545, three weeks.

16. "Win Win," Fox Searchlight, $1,107,961, 388 locations, $2,856 average, $6,630,650, six weeks.

17. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," Fox, $933,540, 928 locations, $1,006 average, $50,290,531, five weeks.

18. "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," Rocky Mountain Pictures, $881,034, 465 locations, $1,895 average, $3,096,815, two weeks.

19. "Jane Eyre," Focus, $782,372, 319 locations, $2,453 average, $7,913,203, seven weeks.

20. "Born to be Wild," Warner Bros., $652,739, 208 locations, $3,138 average, $3,075,211, three weeks.

Hollywood 3-D Animation Movie 'Rio' Continues on top of the US box office

 Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg's talking birds have edged out Tyler Perry's sass-talking grandma at the weekend box office.

Hathaway and Eisenberg's animated family adventure “Rio” took in US$26.8 million to remain the No. 1 movie for the second-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family” debuted a close second with US$25.8 million, another solid opening for writer-director Perry, who also stars as boisterous, opinionated grandma Madea.

Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson's circus romance “Water for Elephants” premiered in third-place with US$17.5 million.

“It's nice to have two movies in the top-three,” said Bert Livingston, distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, which released both “Rio” and “Water for Elephants.”

The weekend's other new wide release, Disney's nature documentary “African Cats,” opened at No. 6 with US$6.4 million.

Morgan Spurlock's product-placement documentary “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” opened with fair but unremarkable business in limited release.

The latest from the maker of the hit documentary “Super Size Me” took in US$135,139 in 18 theaters, averaging US$7,508 a cinema. That compares to an US$11,254 average in 2,288 theaters for “Madea's Big Happy Family,” which had by far the best cinema average among the top-10 movies.

Hollywood scored its second-straight weekend of rising revenues, good news for studios that have been in a box-office slide since last fall.

Receipts totaled US$138 million, up 39 percent from the same weekend last year, when “How to Train Your Dragon” was No. 1 with US$15.4 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

The upward trend likely will continue next weekend with “Fast Five,” the latest movie in “The Fast and the Furious” action franchise, expected to have a huge opening, said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

“I think we're going to have three up weekends in a row, and for us, that's a roll. We've been down for so long,” Dergarabedian said. “It really points out how cyclical this business is.”

A love-bird story centered on rare parrots, “Rio” raised its domestic total to US$81.3 million. The movie has taken in US$204.7 million more overseas, for a worldwide haul of US$286 million.

“Rio” held on well to its audience, revenues dropping a scant 32 percent in the second weekend, while “Water for Elephants” came in a bit above industry expectations.

Adapted from the best-selling novel, “Water for Elephants” features Witherspoon as the star of a Depression-era circus, with Pattinson co-starring as a veterinarian who falls for her despite her jealous, tyrannical husband.

“It felt like old-time filmmaking for me and I think for the audience,” Livingston said. “I think it's going to play for a long time. People are going to talk about it.”

While Perry's latest “Madea” flick was unable to knock “Rio” off its perch, the filmmaker has been a prolific and consistent box-office earner, averaging two movies a year for distributor Lionsgate over the last four years.

“He has the most loyal fan base that I certainly have ever been associated with,” said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. “They just continue to come out and flock to the cinemas and see his movies, whether it's a drama or comedy. He knows how to speak to his audience.”