Weekend Estimates: Rango Posts Biggest Weekend of 2011

March 6, 2011

Things look a little brighter at the box office this weekend thanks to three sprightly opening weekends. At the top of the list, Rango posted the best opening of the year with $38 million, perhaps not quite as high as the more optimistic pre-weekend predictions, but still the best debut of 2011 to date. In spite of great reviews, it will be interesting to see what legs the film will have, since it skews somewhat older than traditional big-budget animated fare. The Adjustment Bureau landed in second place with a good $20.9 million opening from 2,840 theaters, and again it stands a chance of enjoying good word-of-mouth. Beastly, meanwhile, placed third with $10.1 million. In spite of a mauling from critics, it's actually enjoying the best CinemaScore among moviegoers, suggesting that it's hitting its target demographic (teen girls) very successfully.

The weekend's final wide opener, Take Me Home Tonight, could muster only $3.5 million in 2,003 theaters, and won't last long. It could still pop up with decent numbers on the home market, thanks to its solid reviews and 1980s nostalgia.

So far as the year-to-year comparison is concerned, we suffered yet another down weekend, thanks to the release of Alice in Wonderland this weekend last year. Overall box office will most likely be about 30% down this weekend, and continues to lag about 20% on the year-to-date comparison. With the rest of the month's releases looking so-so, the "down" streak could well extend past 20 weeks.

Elsewhere on the chart, The King's Speech didn't enjoy much of an Oscar bounce, dropping 11% from last weekend. Inside Job did benefit somewhat from its Best Documentary nod, but still averaged only $1,500 per theater. The best new limited release was Happythankyoumoreplease, which averaged $15,000 in two theaters for Anchor Bay.

- 3-Day Weekend Estimates
- Friday Estimates
- Saturday Estimates
- Sunday Projections

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, The King’s Speech, Happythankyoumoreplease