Fast Five shot out of the gate with a weekend total of $83.6M.  Obviously, we haven’t seen these type of totals all year, so it comes as no surprise that the film has broken all sorts of records. This is the best opening for the Fast and Furious franchise.  It is also the largest opening of 2011, the largest opening in April, and the biggest opening that Universal has ever had.

The film played at over 3,600 locations in the United States, including a handful (243) of IMAX screens. It was well received by audiences, earning a CinemaScore of “A”, which should ensure continued brisk business in upcoming weeks.

Coming in far behind Fast Five was Rio, now in its third week in release. It made $14.4M, which was a decline of about 45%.  Madea’s Big Happy Family took the third spot this weekend with $10.1M.

So what about the weekend’s other two new films?  They were left in the dust, coming in 5th and 6th.  Teenagers didn’t show up for Disney’s Prom. The film made about $5M, and had a paltry per screen average of $1832. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil fared even worse with $4.1M. That’s well below the $12M its predecessor made on its opening weekend.

Water for Elephants was number four, earning $9.4M. The film has made about $32M in two weeks.  Dylan Dog: Dead of Night rolled out on 875 screens, but fell short of making one million dollars. Its take was $885,000

In limited release, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams had an impressive per screen average of $25,400.

Last week I mentally predicted that New Moon would come in around the $80 Million mark. Obviously, there is a reason that I am not in the business of box office predictions. New Moon grossed over $140 Million during its opening weekend, and broke a few records along the way. Fangirls (and a few fanboys) showed that they are an emerging force to be reckoned with, as New Moon ($72.7 Million) broke the opening day record previously held by The Dark Knight ($67.2 Million.)

According to Entertainment Weekly, over 80% of the ticket sales were from women, a truly rare occurrence. Although the film was critically drummed, (currently 29% on Rotten Tomatoes) audiences gave it an A- cinemascore, indicating that they were very happy with the film. The film opened on a massive 4,000+ screens, and averaged over $34,900 per screen. There was a drop off from Friday to Saturday of about 40%.

Also of note: New Moon now has the 3rd biggest opening weekend ever behind The Dark Knight and Spiderman 3. Its midnight screening averages on Friday morning garnered over $26M, setting a new record for that. The world box office take was over $258 Million. Director Chris Weitz must feel vindicated after the disastrous box office performance of The Golden Compass, his last directorial effort.

Early estimates show that The Blind Side had an opening weekend gross of $34.5 Million, which is nothing to sneeze at. This marks the best opening ever for Sandra Bullock, just behind last summer’s The Proposal. The film also got a remarkable A+ cinemascore, which means it will start getting some seriously good word of mouth. Expect it to remain in the top ten for a long time.

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