Movieline

Madagascar 3 and Prometheus Reign Supreme at the Box Office Over the Weekend

Madagascar 3

Those wild animals in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted showed their box office heft, beating out Prometheus to land atop the overall box office for the weekend. The opener for the third installment of the animated feature figured bigger than anticipated for the pic which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last month and is clearly flexing its franchise prowess. The film had an 8% increase Saturday, bringing out families. But Prometheus is certainly not a disappointment. The feature also had better than expected numbers. Internationally, the pic stood at $91.5 million over the weekend after nearly two weeks in release in some territories and its IMAX $9.1 million total is a June record.

1. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (3-D animated)
Gross: $60.35 million
Screens: 4,258 (PSA: $14,173)
Weeks: 1
Certainly not a bad start for the animated film and on par with its previous installment, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which opened also in first place back in 2008 with a $63.1 million gross in 4,056 theaters (for an impressive $15,559 average). That film went on to gross over $180 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo and nearly $424 million worldwide.

2. Prometheus
Gross: $50 million
Screens: 3,396 (PSA: $14,723)
Weeks: 1.
Prometheus actually slightly topped Madagascar in the per screen average take by $550. Worldwide, Prometheus has seen $141.5 million so far since it first hit screens abroad in addition to this weekend's domestic debut.

3. Snow White and the Huntsman
Gross: $23.02 million
Screens: 3,777 (PSA: $6,095)
Week: 2 (Change: - 60%)
The Kristen Stewart starter added just four more theaters in its second weekend, dropping to number 3 in the ranking with a 60% drop in overall gross compared to its opening $56.255 million last week. The movie has picked up $182 million worldwide so far.

4. Men in Black 3 3-D
Gross: $13.5 million
Screens: 3,792 (PSA: $3,560)
Week: 3 (Change: - 54%)
Another pretty big drop for Men in Black though 456 locations fewer screened the title over the previous weekend. Still, the pic has amassed $441.7 million internationally. That's some serious cha-ching!

5. The Avengers
Gross: $10.8 million
Screens: 3,129 (PSA: $3,454)
Week: 6 (Change: -47%)
Still going strong, the year's biggest film so far has grossed nearly $1.4 billion worldwide.

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Gross: $3,235,000
Screens: 1,298 (PSA: 2,492)
Week: 6 (Change: -28%)
The specialty has stayed in the top ten of the overall box office after its initial roll out in only dozens of theaters. It held onto number 6 among all releases last weekend, despite being in comparatively far fewer venues and its gross decline was only 28% compared to the previous week.

And what did you see this weekend? Was it worth it?