If there’s one thing the Croods know, it’s how to bash things—their dinners, their surroundings and especially each other.
Should it really surprise us that their namesake movie is such a … hit?
DreamWorks’ The Croods smashed and crashed its way to the top of the box office this weekend, squeezing an estimated $44.7 million out of moviegoers and knocking Oz the Great and Powerful off his lofty perch: Not too shabby for this Cro-Magnon clan. Granted, it’ll be hard for the prehistoric family to cash their paychecks: The paleolithic era was not known for its banking system. But even if they opt to just set the things on fire and cook some tasty archaeopteryx wings over ’em, the money was well earned.
Another newcomer, Olympus Has Fallen, made a killing of its at the box office, banking $30.5 million for second place. It’s been a weak year thus far for actioners, but the R-rated Olympus proved to be the exception to the trend: According to boxofficemojo.com, the flick earned more in its opening weekend than fellow action movies Parker, The Last Stand, Dead Man Down and Bullet to the Head did in their respective openers combined.
Oz the Great and Powerful slid to third with a still stout $22 million weekend, showing the world those flying monkeys have a little spring in their wings yet. The Call, another holdover, phoned in $8.7 million for fourth place—holding off newcomer Admission. The latter film, a PG-13 romcom starring Tina Fey, earned $6.4 million—which effectively barred the R-rated Spring Breakers from the Top 5 in its first week in wide release.
Spring Breakers, the cinematic coming-out party for former Disney starlets Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, earned a cool $5 mil—a success, some have said.
Still, the week’s box office returns suggest that it’s more lucrative to be family friendly this spring, even if your forehead is a little sloped.
Final figures update: 1. The Croods, $43.6 million; 2. Olympus has Fallen, $30.4 million; 3. Oz the Great and Powerful, $21.6 million; 4. The Call, $8.9 million; 5. Admission, $6.2 million.
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