Box Office: Holiday Weekend Goes to the Birds with ‘Rio’

Many thought this Easter weekend was going to be a slam dunk for Tyler Perry and his third film to be based on the popular “Madea” character.  However, it was a blue macaw and his feathered friends who fended off the competition. Rio came in at the number one spot for the second weekend in a row.  The film made $26.8M, bringing its two week total to $81M.

Madea was a close second, with Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family making $25.8.  That is a very solid opening weekend total, but it is only the fourth largest debut from Tyler Perry, and it is lower than the two previous Madea movies.

The audience skewed heavily toward African American women over the age of 25, which is very typical for one of Perry’s films.  The film got a coveted “A” grade from audience members polled by CinemaScore. It should also be noted that Madea’s Big Happy Family had the highest per/screen average of the weekend ($11,254).

After critic reviews started coming in as less than stellar, there was some fear that Water for Elephants would under-perform, but it came in about where expected. The romance starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon made about $17.5M and got an “A-” grade from viewers.

Hop actually managed to build 16% over last weekend’s totals, which is not too surprising considering it is a film about the Easter Bunny. It snagged fourth place with $12.5M, and has just surpassed a cumulative gross of $100M.

Scream 4 couldn’t find an audience in its second weekend in release, and plummeted over 60% from last week. That is typical of most horror films, but the studio was likely hoping for some atypical totals after all these years. In two weeks, the film has made $31.2M. Of course, its budget of $40M should ensure that it won’t be a big loss.

Disney’s nature documentary African Cats just barely missed the top five, earning $6.4M. Holdovers Soul Surfer, Insidious, Hannah and Source Code rounded out the top ten. Interestingly enough, none of the films dropped below 30%, even though they are all in their third or fourth weeks of release. That is a little unusual, and usually indicates staying power.

Outside of the top ten, Morgan Spurlock’s POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and Incendies enjoyed great per/screen totals in extremely limited release.

Next week brings us Fast Five, Hoodwinked Too!, and Prom will face off.