Weekend Box Office: May 6-8
Sun, May 8, 2011 
Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Thor - $66 milion
2. Fast Five - $32.5 million
3. Jumping the Broom - $13.7 million
4. Something Borrowed - $13.1 million
5. Rio - $8.2 million
6. Water For Elephants - $5.6 million
7. Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family - $3.9 million
8. Prom - $2.4 million
9. Soul Surfer - $2.1 mllion
10. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil: $1.8 million
So I guess this bodes well for The Avengers next summer, as long as the movies stay as good as this one was. Thor kicked off the summer movie season with $66 million - not exactly record-breaking, hell, not even close to Fast Five's $86 million last weekend, but for a lesser-known comic book character from the Marvel universe, it's still pretty damn good. With virtually no competition next weekend (Priest? I don't think so), it should continue to play well until Pirates 4 and Hangover 2 invade theaters later this month.
Fast Five's fanbase appeared to get it all out of their system last weekend, with the film hitting the brakes and dropping 62% to finish the weekend with $32.5. Granted, it did lose its IMAX theaters to Thor, but that's still a steep drop. Doesn't matter though, the movie has already grossed $324 million worldwide and a sixth entry in the franchise is already in the works.
As with 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this weekend also demonstrated once again that if you open a superhero movie starring a hot Australian actor, women really won't care too much about the obligatory counter-programming romantic comedies opening the same weekend. Both films proved no match for Chris Hemsworth's abs this weekend, with Jumping the Broom's $13.7 million edging out Something Borrowed's $13.1 million. Water for Elephants also continues to stick around with another $5.6 million this weekend. Next weekend brings us Bridesmaids...and the less said about that one, probably the better.
Well, that officially opens the summer movie race. I really enjoyed Thor (even with the crappy 3D), so I'm even more psyched about the rest of this summer's movies now. Let's hope this promises some even better weekends to come.
Reader Comments (1)
"crappy 3D"? I have to disagree. I didn't think the 3D was bad at all. In fact, some of the battles scenes looks pretty amazing. I did see it in IMAX 3D though so I can't speak for the regular 3D shows. Either way, the movie was great and I plan to see it again this weekend in 2D.
Bring on Captain America!