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Posted April 5, 2011 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Weekend Box-Office: Hop on Top!

Three new movies, three top takers; and on two of them, the majority of audiences and critics can agree. Hop was the big winner of the weekend; while not a critical darling, it more than made up for that with a take of $38.1 million, almost $15 million more than last week’s top film. Hop is the CG tale of the Easter Bunny’s son, who must figure out how to recover the family business after it’s taken over by a disgruntled chick. Source Code came in 2nd with a far more modest take, only $15 million, but is wowing both critics and audiences alike. Jake Gyllenhaal is a Captain sent on a mission to discover the identity of a bomber. The catch? The bomb has already gone off, and poor Jake finds himself time-travelling into different people’s last few minutes before they die, over and over again, to solve the mystery. And in 3rd, Insidious, a horror film about a family who tries to prevent their comatose son from being taken away by ghostly forces, made $13.4 million.

The top earners last week find themselves all over the board. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules only dropped to 4th with $10.2 million, and Limitless found itself only slightly down with $9.4 million in 5th place, but Sucker Punch fell all the way to 7th, earning only $6 million. Both Diary and Limitless have been box office successes so far, but Sucker Punch lost nearly 70% revenue compared to last week, most likely due to poor reviews and word of mouth.

Comparatively, while Sucker Punch has a ways to go to prove itself, the foreign market is helping a few audience favorites over the top. The Lincoln Lawyer has nearly broken even domestically with $39.6 million (and done so thanks to a small percentage internationally), landing in 6th with $7.1 million this week; Paul has reached $31.9 million in the U.S. (but has more than covered its bases with near equal standing overseas), the $4.3 million it made this weekend helping considerably; and Rango has long since broken the $100 million barrier (though not its budget, counting only domestic dollars), its 8th place showing bringing in $4.6 million over the weekend (and over $200 million total). But no foreign market needed for Battle: Los Angeles; the alien action pic may have brought in the least this weekend with $3.5 million, but unlike its fellow alien competition, has made $78 million at home, covering its bases by a few million. Although the $79 million made overseas certainly can’t hurt, either.

Weekend Box Office (April 1 – April 3)

  1. Hop…$38.1 million
  2. Source Code…$15 million
  3. Insidious…$13.4 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 million
  8. Rango…$4.6 million
  9. Paul…$4.3 million
  10. Battle: Los Angeles…$3.5 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."