There was rejoice in Hollywood over the weekend as box office business finally made a significant gain for the first time since early November. Owing to the strongest opening weekend of 2011 and a string of strong holdovers, there was an 11% financial increase from this time last year when Clash of the Titans edged out new release Date Night to remain at the top of the charts. This was in spite of Scream 4 greatly under-performing and a wonderful boost for the numerous big studios who will be shortly launching their summer movie slates. Rio opened with a $40 million sum with 58% of its ticket sales 3D assisted. On Friday it took $10.4 million to Scream 4's $8.2 million which led some to predict a close battle to the top of the charts. However this was not to be with good word of mouth helping Rio make a huge 65% gain on Saturday whilst bad word of mouth saw Scream 4 drop significantly over the next two days. In the end it wasn't even a contest as Rio made twice the amount of money of its blockbuster hyped challenger helping to add to its highly impressive $168 million worldwide tally. With Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger's Tides not opening for another month, Rio looks likely to be the first 2011 release to reach the $300 million dollar mark. Not bad for a film with a $92 million budget, a pretty modest sum for modern animation movies. Bert Livingston, the Fox senior president of Distribution was understandably ecstatic with the result sounding somewhat reminiscent of James Cameron in his appraisal:
We got everybody. It's working in every country on the planet. "It's great to get people back in the movie-going habit."
Rio and Hop should both enjoy a super strong couple of weeks now that Spring Break has commenced stateside. Less ecstatic with their film's opening sum were Dimension Films who saw Scream 4 make a shade under $20 million dollars despite huge hype and extensive marketing. For a film that many insiders were predicting to open with nearly $50 million this is a huge let-down. The middling reviews certainly didn't help as Scream 4 emerged as the only film over the weekend to actually drop in gross over Saturday. It is also somewhat ironic that the picture was heavily attended by under 25's even though the marketing clearly aimed to nostalgically capitalise on the first time lovers of the franchise. Clearly the youth appeal of stars such as Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere helped but obviously not too many people were interested in seeing cast regulars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette reprise their overcooked roles. Attendance was way down on the opening for Scream 3 back in 2000 which grossed $34.7 million or $52 million when adjusted for inflation. That film saw rather significant drops in the following weeks which is common for horror films regardless and so the omens do not look good for the latest installment. Scream 4 is thus the Box Office Flop of the Week. Box Office Success Story of the Week:Soul Surfer, the biopic about surfer Bethany Hamilton saw a heavy female attendance for its opening weekend and held well during its second week in the charts, already squeezing past its $18 million production budget. The film was down only 30.2% in gross from the previous weekend, taking $7.4 million for a $19.9 million total in ten days and already emerging as the fourth highest grossing surf related movie of all time. ROUND-UP: If Soul Surfer is success story of the week, then Insidious is undoubtedly the success story of the year proving that brilliant marketing can launch a film to success even when it features a low budget and lowly stars. The film has made over twenty times its $1.5 million budget for a $35.9 million total after three weeks on release. For a horror film it is holding supremely well and could actually challenge Scream 4 in regards to overall gross, a statement that would have had people in stitches at the start of the year. Hop enjoyed two weeks at the top of the charts but it saw a 47.6% drop for its second weekend culminating in a $11.1 million haul for an $82.6 million tally which is behind where Rango was at a similar stage. Next week however, Hop can look forward to doubling its budget worldwide, a stat that Rango will not be able to boast about. Hanna should overtake its $30 million budget soon with a $7.3 million weekend sum resulting in a $23.3 million total but Arthur is going to struggle as it only just made enough over the weekend to match half of its $40 million cost. Source Code, Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer all had good weeks whilst Your Highness cemented itself as one of the biggest domestic dissapointments of the year with a near 60% gross decline resulting in a $15.9 million total from a $49.9 million production budget. The film is a big let-down for director David Gordon-Green who was hoping to capitalise on the surprise success story that was his previous film Pineapple Express. The rest of the this weekend's charts can be viewed below courtesy of Box Office Mojo. 1 N Rio Fox $40,000,000 - 3,826 - $10,455 $40,000,000 $90 1 2 N Scream 4 W/Dim. $19,279,000 - 3,305 - $5,833 $19,279,000 - 1 3 1 Hop Uni. $11,167,000 -47.6% 3,608 -8 $3,095 $82,609,000 $63 3 4 4 Soul Surfer TriS $7,400,000 -30.2% 2,214 - $3,342 $19,997,000 $18 2 5 2 Hanna Focus $7,327,000 -40.8% 2,545 +10 $2,879 $23,327,000 $30 2 6 3 Arthur (2011) WB $6,940,000 -43.2% 3,276 - $2,118 $22,348,000 $40 2 7 5 Insidious FD $6,857,000 -26.8% 2,233 -186 $3,071 $35,983,000 $1.5 3 8 7 Source Code Sum. $6,300,000 -27.2% 2,557 -414 $2,464 $36,990,000 $32 3 9 N The Conspirator RAtt. $3,924,000 - 707 - $5,550 $3,924,000 $25 1 10 6 Your Highness Uni. $3,895,000 -58.4% 2,772 +3 $1,405 $15,952,000 $49.9 2 11 8 Limitless Rela. $3,794,000 -30.5% 1,885 -770 $2,013 $69,723,000 $27 5 12 10 The Lincoln Lawyer LGF $3,000,000 -29.9% 1,702 -718 $1,763 $50,570,000 $40 5