It was a great day for the box office on Friday, June 22 as Pixar’s Brave successfully opened in theaters nationwide. The thirteenth film from the animation studio debuted to $24.5 million which is easily the biggest opening day of the year for any movie in the genre and that includes The Lorax and Madagascar 3 which rode initial success to $60+ million opening weekends. This is a big win for Disney as they have proven that whatever Pixar conjures up can be spun into gold even if it does have a female lead.
The other two openings were a bit lower profile, so lagging numbers were expected. Theatergoers who wanted a little horror action were privy to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which found $6.3 million in its first day. That number is on target with what analysts were eyeing for the movie, so there is no headline here despite the fact that this property cost $70 million to make which might make a profit hard to come by.
Another new arrival was Seeking a Friend for the End of the World starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley. A lot of people expected something that Carrell could at least hang his hat on for this being an ‘indie flick,’ but it was not to be. Even the already low numbers that the industry expected were not handicapped enough as the movie opened to $1.3 million. One of the problems here was the film’s seemingly derivative nature from a premise that could have been a lot more judging from the title.
Here are the top ten from the first day of the current weekend.
Title – ($FRIDAY/$TOTAL)
1. Brave – $24.5 M / $24.5 M
2. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - $6.3 M / $6.3 M
3. Madagascar 3 - $6.1 M / $143.5 M
4. Prometheus - $2.9 M / $101.4 M
5. Rock of Ages - $2.5 M / $23.3 M
6. Snow White and the Huntsman - $2.5 M / $131.5 M
7. That’s My Boy - $2.4 M / $22.7 M
8. The Avengers - $2.1 M / $593.3 M
9. Men in Black 3 - $1.8 M / $159.5 M
10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - $1.3 M / $1.3 M