WATER FOR ELEPHANTS Tops Australia, MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY Passes $50m: Box Office

Robert Pattinson, Tai the Elephant, Water for Elephants

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Next in line at the North American box office this weekend, May 13-15, was the Reese Witherspoon-Robert Pattinson-Christoph Waltz circus drama Water for Elephants with $4.1m at no. 8, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, Water for Elephants has proved itself quite resilient: it was down only 32%. Domestic total: $48.47m. Water for Elephants should pass the $50m milestone domestically within the week. Cost: $38m.

It’s worth noting that Water for Elephants was the top release in Australia this weekend, taking in $3.8m. The film’s current worldwide total stands at $82.47m.

Rounding out the top twelve were:

• Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family with $2.2m (-47%). Domestic total: $50.21m. Perry’s latest passed the $50m milestone some time today. There’s no way Madea’s Big Happy Family will get even close to the box-office success of Perry’s previous Madea misadventure, Madea Goes to Jail, which went on to gross $90.5m domestically. Madea’s Big Happy Family cost a reported $25m.
• AnnaSophia Robb’s Soul Surfer with $1.8m (-22%). Domestic total: $39.2m. Cost: $18m.
• Glenn Close-Hayden Panettiere’s Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil with $1.03m (-49%, after losing 1,229 locations). Domestic total: a dismal $8.44m. Internationally, Hoodwinked Too! grossed $622k up to May 8. Cost: $30m.
• Patrick Wilson-Rose Byrne’s Insidious with $965k (-28%). Domestic total: $51.68m. Cost: $1.5m, in addition to $20m+ in marketing expenses.

Gone from the top twelve were the Disney documentary African Cats, Jake Gyllenhaal-Michelle Monaghan’s Source Code, and Aimee Teegarden-Thomas McDonell’s Prom. (Obviously, I spoke too fast yesterday about Prom’s weekend resurgence. Prom was down 60% compared to last weekend, after losing 1,529 locations.)

Among the top-twelve movies Thor, with the assistance of 3D surcharges, had the highest per-theater average, $8,706. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil had the lowest, $808.

Also among the top twelve (barring newcomers Bridesmaids and Priest), Jumping the Broom posted the highest weekend-to-weekend drop-off rate, -52%. Rio posted the lowest, -6%.

Photo: Water for Elephants (David James / 20th Century Fox / Regency)