With the success of BRAVE this weekend and THE HUNGER GAMES back in March, don’t be surprised if young girls start asking for archery lessons this Christmas. BRAVE managed to top the US box office in usual Pixar fashion. This really does demonstrate how trusted Pixar have become to consistently churn out animated classics. BRAVE made $66.7 million this weekend. This puts it amongst other recent Pixar openings such as WALL-E (2008) with $63 million, UP! (2009) with $68 million, and CARS 2 (2011) that brought in $66 million. Many questioned if a red-headed female protagonist, Scottish accents, and the critical failure of CARS 2 would turn away the audience, but there was no need to worry.
When adjusted for inflation this is Pixar’s 9th strongest opening out of 13, which may not sound like such an achievement, but when you realise that all of Pixar’s films have grossed over $50 million on their opening weekend, that says a lot. Also when adjusted for inflation every Pixar film, apart from CARS 2, has made over $200 million domestically.
The other big opening this week was ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. The B-movie with a budget, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and produced by Tim Burton. It landed in third place with a $16.5 million opening. This seems like a fairly reasonable opening for an R rated action horror. I would guess that a large percentage of the US audience may be unclear as to the tone of film, which takes its subject matter quite seriously. The apocalypse themed indie film SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD had to settle with $3.8 million, landing it in 10th place.
Elsewhere in the US box office this week, MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED took in another $20 million in its third week for second place. Rounding out the top 5 were PROMETHEUS in fourth place earning $10 million and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN taking in another $8 million. Last week’s new openers ROCK OF AGES and THAT’S MY BOY slipped to 6th and 7th place with $8 million and $7.9 million respectively. THE AVENGERS is still holding strong with another $7 million. It will most likely pass the $600 million mark this week.
Next week will see the comedic R rated releases MAGIC MIKE and TED battling it out. With Channing Tatum’s hilarious role in 21 JUMP STREET, I would guess that people will be rushing to see what he does next. TED will probably come out on top due to it being FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane’s first feature.
BRAVE is released in the UK on 17th August and MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED is released on 19th October. MAGIC MIKE will be released on 11th July and TED on 1st August.
Source: Collider
