It was a showdown between an arrow-shooting heroine and an ax-swinging president—a family-friendly fairy tale versus R-rated blood and guts and teeth. As it turns out, it wasn’t much of a contest: A certain Scottish princess easily won the weekend’s hand.
Disney/Pixar’s Brave hit the audience bulls-eye at the box office, scoring an estimated $66.7 million during the three-day frame. Granted, the opening was fairly typical by Pixar’s standards: Brave earned slightly more than last year’s Cars 2 and 2008’s WALL-E (which opened at $66.1 and $63 million, respectively) but well below the $110.3 million Toy Story 3 earned its opening weekend in 2010. But Brave more than tripled the take of its nearest competitor (Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, at $20.2 million) to nail down Pixar’s 13th No. 1 pic in a row.
Incidentally, Brave also had to have made this weekend a movie milestone for archers everywhere. By my count, four movies in the Top 15 featured prominent arrow slingers: Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman (No. 6), The Avengers (No. 8) and The Hunger Games (No. 13). Where’s a remake of Robin Hood when you need it?
And then you’ve got the weekend’s lone ax-slinger. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter honestly couldn’t match Brave’s movie moxie. The much-buzzed historical abomination chopped its way to $16.5 million—good only for third place. Perhaps audiences just prefer their vampires to be cute and sparkly these days.
Ridley Scott’s Prometheus scared up another $10 million this weekend for fourth place, while the disappointing Rock of Ages slid all the way to fifth with $8 million.
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