Linda (Leslie Mann) spends carnival in Rio
Carlos Saldanha’s animated 3D feature Rio, featuring the voices of Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Jane Lynch, George Lopez, and others, was the no. 1 movie at the North American box office this Easter weekend, grossing $26.8m according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo.
Rio was down only -31.5% despite softer than usual figures on Saturday. Most kiddie flicks go up Saturday and hold up well on Sunday, but Rio, like many other movies on the North American chart, was down on Saturday. That may have something to do with the Easter weekend itself; last year, the same phenomenon took place among several top-twelve films as well (Clash of the Titans, Why Did I Get Married Too, Alice in Wonderland, etc.).
To date, Rio has earned $81.26m domestically, in addition to a whopping $204.7m internationally, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That means a grand total of $283.86m worldwide, which makes Rio the biggest box-office hit of 2011. (Paramount’s Rango is no. 2, with about $240m.) Unsurprisingly, Rio’s top international market remains Brazil, where it added an estimated $6.7m this weekend.
A 20th Century Fox release, Rio’s budget was reportedly $90m.
Partly thanks to Rio, with the assistance of Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family and the Robert Pattinson-Reese Witherspoon-Christoph Waltz drama Water for Elephants, the US/Canada box office was up 38% compared to the same weekend last year.
Chiefly thanks to Rio’s success throughout the week and its relatively small drop-off rate from last weekend, the domestic box office is now down 18% compared to last year — versus 20% a week ago.
It should be noted, however, that figures for the top twelve films were down 26% if compared to Easter weekend (April 2-4) 2010 , when Clash of the Titans opened with $61.23m, and Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too and DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon took in more than $29m each.
Photo: Rio (20th Century Fox)