Rio Opens Strong While Scream 4 Disappoints

So far 2011 box office numbers have been down overall from last year but that finally changed this weekend which produced 12% higher than the same weekend in 2010. Much of the credit goes to the animated film Rio and while Scream 4 was anything but a hit it was able to make enough to push the total for the top ten ahead.

The animated family film Rio easily took the top spot with $40 million. Audiences were ready for something new with the well reviewed movie, which supplanted Hop as the option of choice, was the clear favorite. Rio got a boost in awareness with the release of a themed Angry Birds game late last month and promotion has been relatively strong in more traditional channels. The movie has already collected $128 million in foreign markets and adds the $40 million from its domestic opening.

Industry expectations for Scream 4 varied from the mid 20’s to upper 30’s and ultimately it couldn’t even reach the low end of those numbers. Pulling in only $19.2 million it looks like this will be the end of the line for the franchise though on an estimated budget of $40 million it isn’t a terrible outcome it just goes to show that the assumed level of interest is no longer there in the formula.

One other new release was thriller Conspirator from Robert Redford which opened in just 700 screens and made $3.9 million. Its per screen average was third but the total take only landed it in ninth place. The top film of the last two weeks, Hop, fell 48% to $11.2 million. Soul Surfer and Hanna held up well and took the fourth and fifth spots with $7.4 and $7.3 million respectively. Rounding out the top ten was Arthur, Insidious, Source Code, and Your Highness which dropped a huge 58% in its second weekend.