The first Asgardian adventure from Marvel Studios held strong, losing 47.5% of the audience from its first weekend. That brings its domestic total to almost $120 million in ten days. On the corresponding weekend last year, fellow Marvel movie Iron Man 2 led a busy weekend that was about 5% busier than this year, with blockbuster Robin Hood in second place. Thor's second-week showing is largely attributed to the lack of competition for event-movie dollars.
Thor became the most recent member of this year's $100 million+ club, joining Rango, Rio, Fast Five, Hop, and Just Go With It.
Bridesmaids was clever counter-programming to the likes of Chris Hemsworth's blond locks and Vin Diesel's biceps, and reaped the rewards accordingly. The R-rated comedy from director Paul Feig easily outperformed last weekend's wedding-centric romantic comedies Jumping the Broom and Something Borrowed. Starring and co-written by Kristen Wiig, the comedy replaced romance with vomit and hijinks in the mold of previous efforts by producer Judd Apatow.
This week's only other new release, Priest, came in a fourth place, behind Fast Five, which has racked up a three week total of almost $170 million. For the fifth film of a novelty action franchise, that showing is sort of staggering. Priest, meanwhile, disappointed in comparison with the first collaboration between director Scott Stewart and leading man Paul Bettany. Back in January of 2010, Legion opened to $17.5 million, while Priest earned a projected $14.5 million. All the zippy postapocalyptic action, wire-assisted kung fu fighting, and CGI vampires should have brought the teenage nerds a-flocking, but 57% of Priest's attendees were over 25 years old, according to exit polls by distributor Sony.
Rio lost just 8% of its audience from last weekend, adding an estimated $8 million in its fifth weekend. That extra scratch allowed the DreamWorks release to surpass Rango as the biggest animated film of 2011 so far, with $124.9 million in receipts.
Once again, Jumping the Broom managed to stay ahead of Something Borrowed, despite the latter's more high profile cast and extensive marketing. The estimates are close, however, and the films may very well swap places when the actual totals are released on Monday. Broom pulled in a projected $7.3 million, while Borrowed had an estimated 7.0 million.
Water for Elephants, the novel adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson added another $4.1 million in eighth place. Also in its forth weekend, Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family brought its total to just over $50 million with estimated earnings of $2.2 million.
Soul Surfer stayed in the top ten for the sixth weekend, once again maintaining much of its audience from last weekend in tenth place. As has been the film's signature, the inspirational true story lost only 22% of its audience. Its cumulative total of $39.2 million makes the film an unqualified success for all involved.
1. Thor $34.5 million $119.2 million
2. Bridesmaids $24.4 million New Release
3. Fast Five $19.5 million $168.7 million
4. Priest $14.5 million New Release
5. Rio $8.0 million $124.9 million
6. Jumping the Broom $7.3 million $25.9 million
7. Something Borrowed $7.0 million $25.6 million
8. Water for Elephants $4.1 million $48.4 million
9. Madea's Big Happy Family $2.2 million $50.2 million
10. Soul Surfer $1.8 million $39.2 million
Next weekend, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides steamrolls into theaters. Regardless of whether or not the Johnny Depp franchise continues to deliver without previous director Gore Verbinski, the fourth entry will now doubt dominate the box office for the weekend, and in all likelihood, the year so far.
