Summer generally brings on waves of sequels to fish extra cash out of audiences wallets without all the hassle of coming up with new characters or concepts. It's a proven technique that once again banked some solid box office results this weekend.
Madagascar 3: Europes Most Wanted became the audience favorite, taking the lead after a tight race Friday night against other newcomer Prometheus. Saturday brought the families out to play giving Madagascar 3 the edge it needed to take number one with $60 million. That's on par with its two predecessors who also opened in the low to mid $60 million range, bearing in mind that ticket cost inflation and 3D ticket price boosts mean fewer folks actually saw the third entry than the first two, they just paid more for the privilege.
Despite its R rating and edgy sci-fi thriller marketing campaign Prometheus came out with a strong debut. Prometheus joins the ranks of just 11 other R-rated movies in history to open above $50 million. Not bad for non-sequel to boot.
Over the last three weekends Wes Anderson's quirky drama Moonrise Kingdom has slowly been injected into an increasing number of theaters, giving audiences the chance to warm up to it via word of mouth. This weekend it enjoyed its biggest boost, increasing to nearly 100 theaters and banking $1.5 million, just enough to snag tenth place.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
| Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted | $60,350,000 | Total: $60,350,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 4,258 |
| Prometheus | $50,000,000 | Total: $50,000,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 3,396 |
| Snow White and the Huntsman | $23,021,000 | Total: $98,500,000 | LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 3,777 |
| MIB 3 | $13,500,000 | Total: $135,505,000 | LW: 2 WR: 3 THTRS: 3,792 |
| Marvel's The Avengers | $10,809,000 | Total: $571,860,000 | LW: 3 WR: 6 THTRS: 3,129 |
| The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | $3,235,000 | Total: $31,009,000 | LW: 6 WR: 6 THTRS: 1,298 |
| What to Expect When You're Expecting | $2,710,000 | Total: $35,745,000 | LW: 7 WR: 4 THTRS: 2,087 |
| Battleship | $2,286,000 | Total: $59,830,000 | LW: 4 WR: 4 THTRS: 1,954 |
| The Dictator | $2,150,000 | Total: $55,189,000 | LW: 5 WR: 4 THTRS: 1,651 |
| Moonrise Kingdom | $1,579,000 | Total: $3,750,000 | LW: 13 WR: 3 THTRS: 96 |
