Weekend Box Office: Thor Opens #1 but Falls Just Short of Mighty

By Chris Kavan - 05/09/11 at 01:03 AM CT

In a result that should surprise no one, Thor opened in top spot for the weekend. And while the $66 million is impressive, it couldn't match the $86.2 million debut of Fast Five and in terms of super heroes, was behind the openings of Iron Man, Spider-Man and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Still, Thor doesn't quite have quite the immediate recognition as Iron Man or the forthcoming Captain America, so for a Norse god-turned-mortal, it was a pretty good opening. It also helped that it opened with a record number of 3D screens, which accounted for 60% of its gross.

Thor managed to steal the thunder from Fast Fave, which fell to second with $32.5 and taking the biggest hit, dropping 62.3% over its record April debut. It didn't help that Thor stole nearly all the IMAX screens from Fast Five. Still, the fifth installment of the series officially became the top-grossing movie of the year and now stands at $139.8 million.

The other two wide release films ended up back-to-back in third and fourth place. Jumping the Broom was managed to top Something Borrowed - $13.7 million to $13.2 million, which could be considered an upset considering how much more of a push Something Borrowed had in the marketing department. Still, both films were only average for romantic comedies.

Rounding out the top 5, Rio was just under $115 million total, bringing an another $8.2 million. If it can hold out, it should be able to top Rango next week to become the year's top-grossing animated film.

Although dropping out of the top 10, the horror film Insidious and the sci-fi drama Source Code both crossed the $50 million mark. By next week Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family should cross or be very close to crossing that same mark - although it also took a big drop in attendance, the $3.9 million seventh-place showing raised its total to $46.8 million.

After seeing some gains from last year, this week was down 10% compared to 2010. Hopefully some new blood can once again put Hollywood back into a good mood.

Next week sees the delayed Priest finally getting its theatrical release where we'll see if Paul Bettany can scare up decent numbers, along with the comedy Bridesmaids, which looks to dominate the female market.

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