Weekend Box Office: April 29 - May 1
Sun, May 1, 2011 
Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Fast Five - $83.6 million
2. Rio - $14.4 million
3. Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family - $10 million
4. Water for Elephants - $9.1 million
5. Prom - $5 million
6. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil - $4.1 million
7. Soul Surfer - $3.3 million
8. Insidious - $2.6 million
9. Hop - $2.55 million
10. Source Code - $2.53
And....cue summer! Wow. Fast Five, the fifth in the seemingly never-ending Fast and the Furious series finally kicked open the doors of the 2011 box office, opening with a staggering $83.6 million. That's the highest opening for the entire franchise so far, as well as Universal's biggest opening weekend since 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Overseas, where the film opened last week, Fast Five has grossed an additional $81 million, bringing its worldwide total to $165 million already. So, if we didn't already learn this with the last film, we know now: April + Fast and the Furious = great big hit.
It was not such a great weekend for the other new releases, with audiences choosing the animated hit Rio over the who-asked-for-this-in-the-first-place sequel Hoodwinked Too!. In its third weekend, Rio crossed the $100 million mark with a $14.4 million finish, while Hoodwinked sputtered with $4.1 million. Disney's Prom didn't fare much better, opening quietly with $5 million, while that film's target audience was still enjoying their Robert Pattinson fix, as Water for Elephants finished the weekend with a decent $9.1 million.
Tyler Perry's latest Madea adventure had its typical big drop in its second weekend, but has so far grossed $41 million (and, like Fast Five, we'll probably see another sequel soon). With Easter over and done with, Hop has almost totally lost its audience with an 80% drop this weekend. Insidious continues to play well - the $1.5 million budgeted horror film has grossed $48 million so far.
Well, that's it for the warmup act...summer movie season kicks off officially next week with the release of Thor. So far, it looks like we're off to a good start.
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