Madagascar Roars Past Cruise & Sandler

Weekend Recap: 6/15-17/2012

It’s been 10 days since my last review and I feel terrible about that. But until I can find some time to play catch up on the reviews, here’s the Weekend Recap!

This past weekend was a bit of a rematch. Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler have done battle before (check out their versus analysis here). On June 25, 2010, Cruise’s Knight and Day took on Sandler’s Grown Ups. Both failed to top the box office, with the top spot going to Toy Story 3 in its second week. That year, Sandler took second place and Cruise took third.

This weekend Cruise was able to finish ahead of Sandler, but both were trumped yet again by a cartoon in its second week. Not only did Madagascar 3 lead the box office with $35.5 million, but a returning movie took second place as well, as Prometheus (review here).

That left third place to Cruise and Rock of Ages, with a disappointing $15.1 million. Snow White and the Huntsman (review here) came in fourth, bringing in $13.8 million, although being in less theater’s than Rock of Ages actually gave SW&TH a better per-location average.

Sandler and That’s My Boy rounded out the Top Five with an abysmal $13 million. That’s the lowest opening-weekend gross for a Sandler live-action comedy since Bulletproof in 1996.

Meanwhile, Moonrise Kingdom, still in less than 200 theaters, took in $2.2 million for a weekend-best per-location average of $12,252. Also in limited release, Your Sister’s Sister, the second Mark Duplass-starring movie released in just as many weeks (the second being Safety Not Guaranteed) grossed $117 thousand in only 13 theaters.

Here’s a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films domestically:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	Madagascar 3	$35.5 million	$8,327	$120.5 million
2	Prometheus	$20.2 million	$5,868	$88.9 million
3	Rock of Ages	$15.1 million	$4,365	$15.1 million
4	Snow White and the Huntsman	$13.8 million	$4,556	$122.6 million
5	That’s My Boy	$13 million	$3,514	$13 million
6	Men in Black 3	$10 million	$3,189	$152.7 million
7	Marvel’s The Avengers	$8.8 million	$3,426	$586.7 million
8	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$2.2 million	$1,858	$35.1 million
9	Moonrise Kingdom	$2.2 million	$12,252	$6.8 million
10	What to Expect When Your Expecting	$1.3 million	$1,093	$38.8 million