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Movie Monday: Madea Can’t Get to Rio


rio 2.JPGThose wacky animated birds had another nice weekend in the sun this week, as Rio bested a bevy of new releases to retain its hold on the box office’s No. 1 slot.

Rio snagged an estimated $26.8 million, a cool mil higher than Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family made in its opening weekend. But it’s hard to imagine Tyler Perry is (ahem) dragging too much over the film’s performance. His oversize stock character Madea is the film industry’s equivalent of Old Faithful: Every time she explodes, she draws an audience. And while Big Happy Family didn’t pull in quite the numbers that Perry’s Last Madea flick pulled in opening weekend (Madea Goes to Jail banked more than $41 million in its first frame), but it’s more than enough for Madea to fix that raggedy old Cadillac she’s always crashing into things.

Water for Elephants, starring Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame, washed into third place with $17.5 million—outperforming its modest expectations. Meanwhile, Disney’s latest Earth Day film, the charming African Cats, landed in sixth place with $6.4 million.