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‘Madagascar 3,’ ‘Prometheus’ Team Up on the Box Office

In a huge weekend when the top two films alone combined to a beefy $111 million, the box office surged above lasted year’s levels and was able to connect to movie-goers of all types.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted took the top spot by a comfortable margin with $60.3 million, even though it posted the lowest debut of the series. The first of the bunch launched to $61 million over the Memorial Day long weekend in 2005, and the second to $63.1 million in 2008. 

Considering franchise fatigue over the past seven years, this gross is actually quite impressive even with the added 3-D surcharge that did not benefit the first two. The fact that there has been no animated fare since The Pirates! Band of Misfits certainly helped matters as well.

Overseas, “Madagascar 3” has snuck away with $75.5 million for a worldwide total of $135.8 million and set a number of records in Latin America along the way.

Equally impressive domestically and worldwide was sci-fi epic Prometheus which had to settle for the runner-up spot with $51.1 million in the bank stateside and a sizeable $142.55 million across planet Earth.

The Top 10

1. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted - $60.3M (weekend)…$60.3M (gross)
2. Prometheus - $51.1M…$51.1M
3. Snow White and the Huntsman - $23.1M…$98.6M
4. Men in Black III - $13.9M…$135.9M
5. The Avengers - $11.2M…$572.3M
6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $3.3M…$31.0M
7. What to Expect When You’re Expecting - $2.8M…$35.8M
8. Battleship - $2.3M…$59.8M
9. The Dictator - $2.2M…$55.3M
10. Moonrise Kingdom - $1.6M…$3.7M

 

This was the third best second-place debut ever, behind just Sherlock Holmes ($62.3 million) and The Day After Tomorrow ($58.7 million) and a remarkable number for an R-rated sci-fi movie with a dated core fan base and little cross-quadrant appeal (i.e. young girls didn’t run out to see this one).

Prometheus’ debut is also the ninth best for a prequel, ninth best for an R-rated film, the second best for director Ridley Scott and the best of the “Alien” franchise.

For fans hankering for more answers from the mysterious space flick, this box-office result should be enough for Fox to greenlight a sequel that will tie things even closer to the “Alien” films.

 

Snow White and the Huntsman took a hit thanks to the competition and so-so word of mouth, tumbling to $23.1 million in its second week. The fairytale now has $98.6 million stashed away in its tallest tower.

After 12 weeks and more than 80 days of release, box-office behemoth The Hunger Games finally crossed the $400 million mark domestically and sits at number 14 on the all time chart. If all the previous milestones this adaptation had hit wasn’t enough, this is yet another bragging point for Lionsgate.

Next weekend three extremely different types of comedies hit theaters led by Rock of Ages, which goes electric in 3,400 theaters. Adam Sandler’s That’s My Boy goes for the young adult crowd in 3,000 and acclaimed indie comedy Your Sister’s Sister will debut in limited release.  

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