Musical Belts Out Record Opening

Animated flick wins weekend box office

(NEWSER) - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa had the year's best opening for an animated family flick, pulling in $63.5 million to win the weekend box office, Variety reports. R-rated gross-out comedy Role Models, meanwhile, surprised by taking second place with $19.3 million. The remaining top five: High School Musical 3: Senior Year ($9.3 million), Changeling ($7.3 million) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno ($6.5 million). More»

(NEWSER) - Saw VI axed the competition in the final weekend before Halloween by scaring up $32.1 million—falling short of Saw III’s debut weekend, but notching the highest opening of the fall season. Steve Carrell’s quirky dramedy, Dan in Real Life, took second with $12 million, Variety reports. More»

'Avengers' finally falls off the top spot

(NEWSER) - Men in Black: 3 turned out to be much more in the black than The Avengers , winning the three-day holiday weekend with a whopping $55 million domestically and $202 million worldwide. But, notes the Hollywood Reporter , it needs to do well to justify the $230 million Sony spent to make it. The Avengers, meanwhile, pulled in $37 million to put it at a hefty global gross of $1.3 billion. Battleship grabbed No. 3 honors with $10.8 million, while The Dictator took in $9.6 million, and Chernobyl Diaries pulled in $5 million, reports the AP . More»

'Avengers' keeps crushing the competition

(NEWSER) - Battleship barely raised anchor this weekend with a weak $25 million opening that could make it the next John Carter mega-flop. Even the action flick's $226 million international gross won't ease the pain unless domestic interest picks up, says the Hollywood Reporter . Avengers continued to wallop the domestic competition with $55 million, making it the fourth-highest grosser ever. Sacha Baron Cohen's Dictator took third ($17 million), followed by Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows ($12 million) and What to Expect When You're Expecting ($10 million). More»

Superheroes still going strong

(NEWSER) - Marvel Comics' gang of mismatched superheroes are quite the draw. The Avengers crashed the billion-dollar mark just 19 days after hitting theaters, scooping up $103.2 million here and in Canada for Disney this weekend, and another in $95.4 million overseas, reports Bloomberg . Dark Shadows came in second with $28.8 million in its opening weekend. The hungry crowds make it likely movie studios will top 2009's record receipts of $10.6 billion. Sales are up 18% so far, and attendance has grown 20% over last year. More»