Box Office News: Pixar Tops Box Office Again with Solid ‘Brave’ Opening

CHICAGO – Disney/Pixar topped the box office again with their 13th-straight first place debut for the adventure film “Brave” while “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” couldn’t find the public vein and had to settle for a disappointing 3rd place. With “Madagascar 3” dropping slowly to second place, kids movies dominated the box office. Meanwhile, no ONE wanted to find Steve Carell’s latest dramedy as its tenth place opening landed with a thud (and a remarkably low per-screen average).

“Brave” opened with an estimated $66.7 million, right around the last few Pixar offerings — “Cars 2” ($66.1), “Up” ($68.1), “WALL-E” ($63.1) — with the exception of the massive “Toy Story 3.” All of these 60-something Pixar films have drastically different total grosses — “Up” made $100 million more than “Cars 2” — so the story for “Brave” is going to be in how it holds up over the coming week. With a serious lack of family competition on the horizon, one has to assume some relatively strong legs should put it right around $250 million total.

Getting NOWHERE NEAR that total will be “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” as it opened with a below-expectations $16.5 million, a number that’s all the more depressing when one considers the 3D surcharge.

“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” opened in a dismal 10th place with $3.8 million while last week’s openers, “Rock of Ages” and “That’s My Boy,” fell 45% & 41%, respectively.

Next week sees a unique trio of openers — “Magic Mike,” “Ted,” “People Like Us” — none of which should expect to topple “Brave” from the top spot.

ESTIMATED TOTALS
1. Brave [13] — $66.7 million — new
2. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted [14] — $20.2 million — down 41% — $157.6 million total
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [15] — $16.5 million — new
4. Prometheus [16] — $10 million — down 52% — $108.5 million
5. Rock of Ages [17] — $8 million — down 45% — $28.8 million
6. Snow White and the Huntsman [18] — $8 million — down 40% — $137.1 million
7. That’s My Boy [19] — $7.9 million — down 41% — $28.2 million
8. The Avengers [20] — $7 million — down 21% - $598.3 million
9. Men in Black 3 [21] — $5.6 million — down 44% - $163.3 million total
10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World [22] — $3.8 million — new

Source: Box Office Mojo [23]

[24]	By BRIAN TALLERICO [25] Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com [24]