Pixar has now made 13 feature-length animated films, and each has opened in the #1 spot at the box office. Actual attendance is down for the studio’s latest, but you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t take 3D ticket surcharges into account. The movie still managed to uphold Pixar’s ongoing box office record.
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Although ‘Madagascar 3’ is already in its third weekend at the box office, it performed just one-third under the debut of Pixar’s first fairy tale. ‘Brave<\/strong>‘ exceeded one expectation, but failed in another. It earned $66.7 million despite predictions of only $64.7 million, but only 34% of its gross came from 3D showings. 3D percentages haven’t been that low in some time.<\/p>\n While ‘Brave’ is leaps and bounds above its nearest competitor, ‘Madagascar 3<\/strong>‘ still managed to bring in another $20.2 million. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of ‘Brave’, it deserves to suck all attendance away from ‘Madagascar’. Yet ‘Madagascar 3’ keeps going strong. After 17 days, the DreamWorks three-quel has now grossed $157.5 million domestically \u2013 not to mention the $208.4 million it has earned overseas.<\/p>\n Tim Burton’s appeal sure has been put to the test this summer. ‘Dark Shadows’ didn’t fare too well in the summer sun, and the Burton-produced ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter<\/strong>‘ opened slightly under its low expectations. The R-rated 3D genre flick only managed to pull in $16.5 million. For a $69 million genre movie that’s expected to decrease substantially in subsequent weekends, Fox should be sweating silver bullets right now. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln just isn’t a property that belongs in theaters. (Too soon?) Spielberg’s upcoming drama will be the judge of that.<\/p>\n Rounding out the Top 5 were ‘Prometheus<\/strong>‘ and ‘Rock of Ages<\/strong>‘ respectively. The $130 million-budgeted ‘Prometheus’ nabbed another $10 million and crossed the domestic $100 million mark ($108.5 million, to be specific). ‘Rock of Ages’ earned another $8 million, but the $28.7 million total of this $75 million movie isn’t at all good.<\/p>\n The biggest disappointment for the weekend was the debut of ‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World<\/strong>‘. The Steve Carell\/Keira Knightley end-of-the-world romantic dramedy brought in less than half of what it was expected to. Analysts predicted an $8.2 million opening, but it only drew $3.8 million. Fortunately, its production budget was only $10 million.<\/p>\n