The Lorax, which the Reverend Lou Dobbs teaches us is part of a plot by Obama’s friends in the liberal media to demonize the 1%, sneakily earned a lot of money for the 1% over the weekend, grossing an estimated $70.7 million dollars. It was good enough for the best opening of the year, the third-highest March opening (behind Alice in Wonderland and 300), and the sixth highest animated movie of all time. All with a sub-60% rottentomatoes score. The lesson? Don’t release all your animated films at the same time. As long as they’re not competing against each other, they’re pretty much a slam dunk. And I mean “slam dunk” in the sense that it’s easy, not in the sense that it’s something only six-foot-five black guys can do.
Elsewhere, Project X debuted in second with $20.78 million. Less than Chronicle ($22 million opening), but still a success for a movie that didn’t cost very much. It’s the third found-footage movie in a row to open higher than $20 million, so expect to see a lot of those. Which is bad, because the found footage thing kind of sucks, but at the same time it could be good, because those films don’t cost much to make. And studios tend to give filmmakers a lot more creative freedom when their film costs $10 million as opposed to $100. Just as long as they can channel that creativity into a story about a teenager holding a camera for some reason.
| TW | LW | Title |
Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget, in millions |
Week |
|
| 1 | N | Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax | Uni. | $70,700,000 | – | 3,729 | – | $18,960 | $70,700,000 | $70 | 1 |
| 2 | N | Project X | WB | $20,775,000 | – | 3,055 | – | $6,800 | $20,775,000 | – | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | Act of Valor | Rela. | $13,700,000 | -44.0% | 3,053 | +14 | $4,487 | $45,239,000 | $12 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 | Safe House | Uni. | $7,200,000 | -34.1% | 2,553 | -499 | $2,820 | $108,200,000 | $85 | 4 |
| 5 | 2 | Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds | LGF | $7,000,000 | -55.1% | 2,132 | – | $3,283 | $25,745,000 | – | 2 |
| 6 | 3 | Journey 2: The Mysterious Island | WB | $6,925,000 | -48.3% | 3,060 | -290 | $2,263 | $85,611,000 | $79 | 4 |
| 7 | 5 | The Vow | SGem | $6,100,000 | -38.5% | 2,826 | -212 | $2,159 | $111,712,000 | $30 | 4 |
| 8 | 7 | This Means War | Fox | $5,625,000 | -33.2% | 2,342 | -847 | $2,402 | $41,464,000 | $65 | 3 |
| 9 | 6 | Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance | Sony | $4,700,000 | -47.8% | 2,487 | -687 | $1,890 | $44,881,000 | $57 | 3 |
| 10 | 13 | The Artist | Wein. | $3,900,000 | +34.2% | 1,756 | +790 | $2,221 | $37,088,000 | $15 | 15 |
[via BoxOfficeMojo]