In a weekend that was expected to be a bit of a downer due to the Super Bowl it was actually a very strong weekend at the box office. Chronicle topped the weekend with 22 million beating out Daniel Radcliffe in his first role post Harry Potter. Both movies performed strongly saving what is usually a dreadful weekend at the movies.
Next weekend should be continue the uptick with big releases in “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” “Safe House,”"The Vow,” and the 3D release of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” hitting on the same weekend.

1. “Chronicle,” $22 million.
2. “The Woman in Black,” $21 million.
3. “The Grey,” $9.5 million.
4. “Big Miracle,” $8.5 million.
5. “Underworld Awakening,” $5.6 million.
6. “One for the Money,” $5.3 million.
7. “Red Tails,” $5 million.
8. “The Descendants,” $4.6 million.
9. “Man on a Ledge,” $4.5 million.
10. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” $3.9 million.

In one of the funniest box office results in years “The Devil Inside” had a huge opening weekend but still managed to piss off the entire film going public. Paramount managed to trick people into seeing their movie by cutting together a very interesting trailer but audiences were literally booing and throwing trash at the screen by the time the credits ran. There’s gonna be a huge drop off next week when word gets out that this is a gigantic smoldering turd and early word is that it may be out of theaters in three weeks. We can only hope.

1. The Devil Inside   $34.5 million New Release

2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol   $20.5 million $170.2 million

3. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows   $14.1 million $157.4 million

4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo   $11.4 million $76.8 million

5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipWrecked   $9.5 million $111.6 million

6. War Horse $8.6 million   $56.8 million

7. We Bought a Zoo   $8.5 million $56.4 million

8. The Adventures of Tintin    $6.6 million $61.9 million

9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy   $5.8 million $10.4 million

10. New Year’s Eve   $3.3 million $52.0 million

This weekends box office was dominated by Fast Five, the fifth film in the Fast and the Furious franchise. It was by far the largest opening of the year and the third largest non summer/holiday box office opening of all time behind Alice in Wonderland (2010)’s $116.1 million and The Passion of the Christ’s $83.8 million dollar opening. It was also the largest opening in the franchise’s history surpassing Fast and Furious who opened with $71 million dollars.

Following up in second with $14 million was Rio who surpassed the $100 million dollar mark in it’s third weekend. Rio continues to perform strongly in it’s demo and will probably continue to until the next big animated feature hits.

Despite the strong opening by Fast Five there were several disappointments in this weekends box office including Prom, who opened with a weak $5 million dollars, Hoodwinked Too!, which could barely muster $4.1 million dollars, but by far the biggest loser this weekend was Dylan Dog. The graphic novel turned feature film didn’t even hit the $1 million dollar mark and does not bode well for Brandon Routh’s future as a leading man. Look for this one to disappear quickly…

Easter weekend has come and gone and it’s time to see who took advantage of the 3 day weekend for box office gold.

Taking the top spot for the second weekend in a row with a strong $26.8 million dollar weekend is Rio. With only a 31 percent drop off from last week Rio is quickly rocketing to the $100 million dollar mark and will probably pass Hop and Rango for total dollars before it’s run is complete. It’s interesting to note that over 50 percent of it’s sales are from 3D presentations which will no doubt drive future animated features in that direction.

Also performing strongly was Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family who finished in second with $25.8 million dollars. They continued the Easter trend having released the previous 2 Madea movies on Easter as well. Though continuing another Madea trend with a weaker opening each time they release a film in the series. The two previous entries opened with $30 million in 2006 and $41 million in 2009.

This big loser this week is Scream 4, losing over 60 percent of it’s audience from last week. The Wes Craven directed horror movie only pulled in $7.1 million this weekend and is going to have to go a ways to make back it’s $40 million dollar budget. Look for it to dissapear completly from the top 10 and theaters in the coming weeks.

This weeks winner is actually no suprise and that’s the film Hop. The Easter themed film starring James Marsden and Russel Brand took advantage of the holiday and actually grew it’s audience by 16 percent and was the only holdover to increase it’s take over last week. It is also only the third film of the year to gross over $100 million dollars joining both Rango and Just Go With It.

1. Rio ($26.8 million)

2. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family ($25.7 million)

3. Water for Elephants ($17.5 million)

4. Hop ($12.4 million)

5. Scream 4 ($7.1 million)

6. African Cats ($6.4 million)

7. Soul Surfer ($5.6 million)

8. Insidious ($5.3 million)

9. Hanna ($5.2 million)

10. Source Code ($5 million)

It’s Monday morning and that means it’s time to check the numbers and see who had the golden goose this weekend. Taking the #1 spot this weekend with the biggest opening weekend of the year is Rio who edged out Hop and Rango to earn the year to date top spot by over $3 million dollars. There was little competition for Rio as Scream 4 debuted with a weak $19 million dollar opening. It was a disappointing open for Scream 4 whose previous sequels had been box office gold. Scream 3 opened to $34 million dollars in 2000 which adjust to a nearly $50 million dollar opening in today’s terms. Coming in 3rd with a respectable $11 million dollars is the animated Easter flick Hop who pulled in $37 million dollars last weekend. Rounding out the top five were last weeks big surprises Hanna and Soul Survivor. They both continue to perform strong despite not having big stars or huge media campaigns.

Last weeks big disappointments continue to be this weeks disappointments as Your Highness and Arthur took huge drops both losing about 50 percent of last weeks sales. Look for both of these movies to disappear in the next week. The biggest holdovers from last week were Insidious and Source Code who continue to thrive on good reviews and strong word of mouth. Insidious looks to be a big winner within it’s genre as future estimates have it looking like it may now win out over Scream 4 for long term dollars in the coming horror lite months.

It’s Monday morning and you know what that means, It’s time to find out what movie’s you spent your money on this weekend. This weekends big winner for a second week in a row is “Hop” who continued it’s strong run with a 21 million dollar take. Despite it’s 42% drop from last weekend it still had enough to take out the Russel Brand vehicle “Arthur”. The remake of the 1981 comedy pulled in 12 million dollars for a rather anemic second place. This puts Brand in the rare position of having the two top grossing movies of the weekend, a feat that hasn’t taken place since Decaprio did it in “Man in the Iron Mask” and “Titanic” in 1998.

The two big surprises of the week got to the number 3 and 4 spots with “Hanna” and “Soul Surfer” posting strong debuts.Positive reviews for Hanna and a nearly 80% female audience for Soul Surfer drove these movies to strong positions and word of mouth may keep them there for a while.

The biggest disappointment this week was the stoner comedy “Your Highness”. The action/adventure/weed comedy failed to find it’s audience after it was mistakenly marketed as a movie starring Oscar award winners instead of marketing it to the people that drove Pineapple Express and Half Baked out of the red. Look for this film to disappear from theaters rather quickly much like Sucker Punch who has now dropped out of the top ten after just two weeks.

It’s Monday morning and that means it’s time to find out who the big winner was at the weekend box office. This weekends big surprise was the Easter themed Hop which nearly doubled weekend predictions with $38 million dollars. Hop topped Rango‘s strong opening by a small margin but probably does not have the legs that Rango has.  Following up in second place with a lower than expected but still solid take is Source Code with $15 million dollars. The strong performance of these two movies meant big drop-offs for last weeks winners as Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 fell nearly 57 percent for a $10 million dollar fourth place finish and Sucker Punch plummeted nearly 68 percent with a weak $7 million dolalrs for seventh place.

The other big winner was the low budget ghost story Insidious. Insidious debuted with a respectable $13 million dollars, more than covering it’s meager $1 million dollar production budget. Also winning by holding strong were Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer who continue to hold steady while other movies drop to the way side. Expect these two films as well as Source Code to continue their steady ways as word of mouth and good reviews drive them forward.

1. “Hop,” $38.1 million.

2. “Source Code,” $15.1 million.

3. “Insidious,” $13.5 million.

4. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules,” $10.2 million.

5. “Limitless,” $9.4 million.

6. “The Lincoln Lawyer,” $7.1 million.

7. “Sucker Punch,” $6.1 million.

8. “Rango,” $4.6 million.

9. “Paul,” $4.3 million.

10. “Battle: Los Angeles,” $3.5 million.