Just as I predicted in this week’s Box Office Beat, Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” both opened well yesterday, separated by a margin of less than a million dollars. “Prometheus” took the day, but it’s clear now that “Madagascar” should take the weekend, being that kid-oriented films perform best on Saturday and Sunday. Everything else was a footnote, including last week’s winner “Snow White and the Huntsman,” which suffered a predictably huge drop of 63 percent.
In limited release, Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” continued to perform well, clinching a Friday of $455,000 in its roll-out to 96 theaters. That should be good for a weekend in the realm of $1.5 million — which is not as fantastic per-screen as it has been doing at lower theater counts, but still suggests there is quite a bit of interest in its new markets. Among new platformers, FilmDistrict’s time travel charmer Safety Not Guaranteed was the winner, with $27,000 from nine theaters, for what should be a $75,000 opening weekend.
Here is the top 10 chart…
| No. | Title | Friday Gross | CriticSpeak Weekend Projection | # of Theaters |
| 1 | “Prometheus” | $21.4M | $53.5M | 3,396 |
| 2 | “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” | $20.5M | $67.0M | 4,258 |
| 3 | “Snow White and the Huntsman” | $7.5M | $21.8M | 3,777 |
| 4 | “Men in Black 3” | $4.2M | $14.7M | 3,792 |
| 5 | “Marvel’s The Avengers” | $3.3M | $11.4M | 3,129 |
| 6 | “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” | $0.9M | $3.2M | 1,298 |
| 7 | “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” | $0.9M | $2.7M | 2,087 |
| 8 | “The Dictator” | $0.7M | $2.1M | 1,651 |
| 9 | “Battleship” | $0.7M | $2.0M | 1,954 |
| 10 | “Moonrise Kingdom” | $0.5M | $1.5M | 96 |
Source: Box Office Mojo