Breaking the streak of post-“Avengers” under-performers, “Snow White and the Huntsman” took command of the box office this Friday, with a solid $20.3m take, positioning it to rake in a better-than-expected $55.8m on the weekend. The movie still has a long road to profitability, with a production budget of $175m (which doesn’t include P&A), but the good news is that this is not another “Battleship”-sized disaster for Universal.
Meanwhile, the summer’s only big hit thus far, “The Avengers”, became the #3 domestic grosser of all-time, surpassing “The Dark Knight”‘s $533m total, not even four weeks into its run. While it’s highly unlikely that the Marvel Comics adaptation will topple “Avatar”‘s record of $760m, it has a small chance of beating the other James Cameron movie in the top 2 — “Titanic,” which thanks to a recent 3-D re-release now towers at $658m.
You know the drill — check out the full chart after the jump…
| No. | Title | Friday | CS Weekend Projection | Theaters |
| 1 | Snow White and the Huntsman | $20.3M | $55.8M | 3,773 |
| 2 | Men in Black 3 | $8.3M | $26.6M | 4,248 |
| 3 | The Avengers | $5.7M | $21.6M | 3,670 |
| 4 | What to Expect When You’re Expecting | $1.5M | $4.5M | 2,907 |
| 5 | Battleship | $1.4M | $4.2M | 3,144 |
| 6 | The Dictator | $1.4M | $4.2M | 2,649 |
| 7 | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | $1.3M | $5.1M | 1,294 |
| 8 | Dark Shadows | $1.1M | $3.3M | 3,002 |
| 9 | Chernobyl Diaries | $1.0M | $2.8M | 2,433 |
| 10 | For Greater Glory | $0.6M | $1.7M | 757 |
Source: Box Office Mojo