By Chris Kavan - 07/02/12 at 12:01 AM CT
In a battle of the R-rated movies, a raunchy talking teddy bear beat out a bevy of half-dressed hunks to come out on top at the box office.
Seth MacFarlane's Ted, the director also voiced the foul-mouthed bear, opened with record-breaking $54.1 million over the weekend. That number topped the original Hangover's $44.98 million to become the highest-grossing original R-rated film - eight all time on that list, and the third highest-grossing comedy behind The Hangover Part II ($85.9 million) and Sex and the City ($57 million).
It looks like it was the right time for a broad-appealing raunchy tale - following the let downs of The Dictator and That's My Boy. The audience was slightly more male (57%) and younger (52% under 30) and audiences awarded it a solid A-, meaning the film should stand up well in coming weeks, even in the face of blockbuster super heroes.
Magic Mike might not have had as much impact as Ted, but it still managed to cast a decent spell over a largely female audience. The cadre of male strippers, led by Channing Tatum, brought in a decent $39.16 million for the weekend. Depending on where the final tally falls, this could be director Steven Soderbergh's best opening, just edging out Ocean's Twelve ($39.15 million). Regardless, it's another hit for Tatum, although the movie was incredibly front-loaded, taking in 50% of its grosses on Friday, and the average B movie score means that Tatum's third effort might fall short of $100 million.
Still, you have to admit, for a movie featuring male strippers that was clearly targeting only a female audience (who made up 73% of the attendees), that total has to look good to the studio. Even if it nose-dives next weekend, the limited appeal attracted just who it needed.
Tyler Perry also had a pretty good outing with his latest Madea film: Madea's Witness Protection. The film opened in fourth with $26.35 million. While that was short of Madea Goes to Jail ($41.03 million) and Madea's Family Reunion ($30.03 million) - it was still good enough to be the fourth-highest opening of any Madea film and helped improve Perry's image after a string of disappointing films. The inclusion of Eugene Levy and Denise Richards managed to bring in a slightly wider audience as only 70% of the audience was African-American as opposed to the 80% Perry's films usually bring in. With an A- score as well, Madea should hold up well in the coming weeks.
The week's only other new release was so low-key, I didn't even mention it in the previous coming soon blog: the completely generic People Like Us could only managed to scape up $4.3 million all the way in 10th place. Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks both have other big-name projects they are attached to, so this little dud isn't likely to affect either of them, but you have to blame the studio, which obviously hasn't been advertising it at all, so no one really knew about it.
Rounding out the top five were two animated films: Pixar's Brave landed in third with just over $34 million. The Scottish tale has brought in $131.6 million since opening, well ahead of Cars 2 $117.2 million, and should put Pixar back on track for another $200 million film. Though it did fall a somewhat steeper 49% - Merida and co. should put Pixar back on the right track.
Meanwhile Madagascar 3 looks to be headed for the highest-grossing total in that films series. In fifth place, the film took in $11.8 million, raising its total to $180 million. It has already matched Madagascar 2's total, and should have little problem topping the original film's $193.6 million before it ends its run.
Outside the top five, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter took a nasty 63% fall dropping to sixth place with $6 million. The film has taken in just over $29 million since opening, and will be lucky to break $40 million when everything is said and done.
On the other hand, Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom jumped from 11th to 8th place after adding over 450 theaters to its total count. It increased its audience by 43.6% in its sixth weekend, bringing in $4.87 million for a total of $18.4 million and should wind up as the director's second highest-grossing movie behind The Royal Tenenbaums ($52.4 million).
With the Fourth of July coming in the middle of the week, The Amazing Spider-Man (which has been burning up the foreign box office) hits on the 3rd while Katy Perry's concert documentary drops on the 5th and Taylor Kitsch looks to salvage his image with Savages on the sixth. We'll see how a rebooted webslinger compares to other super heroes soon.
