Rio Reigns at the Box Office

This weekend, the box office belonged to the birds as the winged cuties of Rio took out the Ghostface killer of Scream 4. In fact, Rio grabbed the biggest opening of 2011 with $40 million. The film featuring the voices of Oscar nominees Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) should see a nice long shelf life as it faces no strong family competition til Kung Fu Panda 2 comes out in late May…. Opening in second was the fun horror sequel Scream 4 which was on the low end of expectation with $19 million. It will be interesting to see if that film starring original cast members Courtney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell has the legs of its predecessors which all netted at least $90 million… The other new opener was Robert Redford’s historical drama The Conspirator starring James MacAvoy and an award-worthy Robin Wright which came in 9th with almost $4 million on only 700 screens… Holding up well in their second weekend were Soul Surfer and Hanna while Arthur tumbled and the stinking bomb Your Highness collapsed… Take a look at the brand new top ten below and for all your numbers needs, head to Box Office Mojo here.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Rio	Fox	$40,000,000	-	3,826	-	$10,455	$40,000,000	$90	1
2	N	Scream 4	W/Dim.	$19,279,000	-	3,305	-	$5,833	$19,279,000	-	1
3	1	Hop	Uni.	$11,167,000	-47.6%	3,608	-8	$3,095	$82,609,000	$63	3
4	4	Soul Surfer	TriS	$7,400,000	-30.2%	2,214	-	$3,342	$19,997,000	$18	2
5	2	Hanna	Focus	$7,327,000	-40.8%	2,545	+10	$2,879	$23,327,000	$30	2
6	3	Arthur (2011)	WB	$6,940,000	-43.2%	3,276	-	$2,118	$22,348,000	$40	2
7	5	Insidious	FD	$6,857,000	-26.8%	2,233	-186	$3,071	$35,983,000	$1.5	3
8	7	Source Code	Sum.	$6,300,000	-27.2%	2,557	-414	$2,464	$36,990,000	$32	3
9	N	The Conspirator	RAtt.	$3,924,000	-	707	-	$5,550	$3,924,000	$25	1
10	6	Your Highness	Uni.	$3,895,000	-58.4%	2,772	+3	$1,405	$15,952,000	$49.9	2

It will be a Scream…

So, I am not a big horror movie fan, but I have to say I loved the Scream trilogy. They were unique for their rich sense of humor juxtaposed with the usual stabbings, beheadings, shootings, and what not. They also brought Courtney Cox and David Arquette together not to mention re-invigorating Drew Barrymore’s career and reminding us that Neve Campbell was more than “Julia” from Party of Five. Well, now comes word from Entertainment Weekly that Scream 4 is about to start shooting, reuniting those three original stars and their surviving characters. I’m sure Campbell is super excited because um, what exactly has she been doing while her Salinger family from Pof5 became a Mean Girl, is fighting off the alien invasion on V, and got Lost on one of the best shows in history. The film will again be helmed by horror legend Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson (who’s enjoying the success of his current show The Vampire Diaries as well). Get ready to scream your heart out when Scream 4 hits theatres on April 15, 2011.