If anyone had told me in advance that a heavy-handed animated flick about deforestation and evil greedy corporations would open to more than $70 million, I would have called them a fool. There’s no way that such a movie could do that well, or so I thought.

Busting studio expectations by almost $20 million, ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax‘ finished the weekend with $70.7 million, giving it an $18,960 per-screen average.

The house party comedy ‘Project X‘ also performed very well, seizing $20.7 million. While it didn’t open to the expected $21.5 million, and it’s down from other R-rated comedies, Box Office Mojo cites that it’s the third found-footage movie in a row to open with more than $20 million.

‘Act of Valor‘ fell 44% in its second weekend, pulling in another $13.7 million. ‘Safe House‘, however, only dropped 34% and held onto the #4 spot, which isn’t bad at all considering that it’s an R-rated action movie four weeks into its theatrical run.

Tyler Perry’s ‘Good Deeds‘ isn’t faring as well as the director’s films usually do. It fell 55% and only pulled in $7 million in its second weekend. After last week’s lackluster opening, a Lionsgate spokesperson claimed that the studio wasn’t worried about the less-than-great opening because the film would have “long legs.” The studio has to be disappointed after this week’s drop-off.

Winning Oscar gold last weekend, ‘The Artist‘ climbed into the Top 10 with $3.9 million. After 15 weeks of a slow-rolling platform release, ‘The Artist’ is now showing at 1,756 locations and has earned $37 million. If you haven’t yet seen it, now is your chance.

All of the limited releases of the week finished off the numbered chart. Focus Features’ ‘Being Flynn‘ opened on four screens with $45,600. On two screens, ‘Boy‘ opened to $23,400. Also on two screens, ‘The Salt of Life‘ opened to $21,000. No word has been announced on the platform strategy for any of these three titles.

Top 10:

1. ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ (Universal) – $70,700,000

2. ‘Project X’ (Warner Bros.) – $20,775,000

3. ‘Act of Valor’ (Relativity) – $13,700,000

4. ‘Safe House’ (Universal) – $7,200,000

5. ‘Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds’ (Lionsgate) – $7,000,000

6. ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Warner Bros.) – $6,925,000

7. ‘The Vow’ (Screen Gems) – $6,100,000

8. ‘This Means War’ (Fox) – $5,625,000

9. ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’ (Sony) – $4,700,000

10. ‘The Artist’ (Weinstein) – $3,900,000