Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ pseudo-prequel ‘Prometheus’ opened to the number one spot at the box office at its premiere on Friday, surprising nearly everyone. It’s not often a rated-R sci-fi movie can beat out a computer animated family film… especially one that’s got sequel momentum going for it.
But, despite it’s stellar opening day, ‘Prometheus’ slipped a little over the next few days and eventually lost out to ‘Madagascar 3’ for the weekend. The rampagingly annoying zoo animals of ‘Madagascar 3’ ended up with $60.4 million while ‘Prometheus’ came in second place with ‘$50 million.
Of the top 10 movies this week, six of them were sci-fi or fantasy related. ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ slipped in its second week to the #3 spot with $23 million ($98.5 million overall). ‘Men in Black 3’ held on in its third week with $13.5 million ($136 million overall). And Marvel’s juggernaut (pun fully intended) ‘The Avengers’ is still going strong in its sixth week of release, bringing in $10.8 million ($527 million overall) and rounded out the top five for the weekend.
The critically slammed ‘Battleship’ and ‘Dark Shadows’ still slipped into the top 10 with $2.29 million and $1.36 million respectively.
I expect both ‘Madagascar 3’ and ‘Prometheus’ to continue strong next weekend as there’s nothing good on the horizon. Friday, June 15th’s big releases include the totally ridiculous looking ‘Rock of Ages’ and the lame Adam Sandler outing ‘That’s My Boy’. The following week (June 22nd) will likely be the next big weekend with Disney/Pixar’s ‘Brave’ and ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ hitting the screen.
