Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:Despite being one of the few films to have its weekend totals overestimated, "Thor" cruised to a strong opening of $65.7 million to win the box office derby by a slightly more than 2:1 margin of last week's chart topper, "Fast Five". While "Thor"'s opening pales when compared to the comparable "Iron Man" or "Iron Man 2" (which opened the same weekend in 2010), the Marvel Comics adaptation landed the second biggest opening of 2011 thus far.
In some circles, the more impressive story may center on the TriStar/Sony release, "Jumping The Broom", which was underestimated by nearly $1.5 million when initial counts were taken. Made for a mere $6.6 million, "...Broom" surged to a $15.2 million start and had a big Mother's Day attendance, padding its numbers. For Pastor T.D. Jakes, a co-producer on the film, this is already Jakes' highest grossing film, exceeding the $10+ million gross for 2009's "Not Easily Broken" and the $6+ million take for 2004's "Woman Thou Art Loosed!". "...Broom" also had the third highest per screen average for wide releases, netting almost $7,500 per site.
Also underestimated but equally overshadowed is the romantic comedy, "Something Borrowed", which also drew a better than anticipated Sunday attendance and finished the weekend grossing $13.9 million. If the film can hold a decent second weekend, the film should finish near $40 million for its overall gross, exceeding its reported $35 million budget. Critics lambasted the film and audiences were reportedly not too enamored with the film however and it will be interesting to see if female audiences jump to the edgier R-rated "Bridesmaids" and what the effect on "Something Borrowed"'s second weekend will be.
Two other holdovers fared well Mother's Day weekend and saw smaller than expected dropoffs. "Water For Elephants" became profitable this weekend, losing just 35% of its audience in the third weekend and raising its bar to $42.1 million. As audiences shift their attention to bigger and bolder summer fare, it will be interesting to see if "Water...'" can retain its appeal with audiences. "Elephants" looks likely to hit its projected $55 million final gross at this point.
Hanging in the lower reaches of the Top 10, "Soul Surfer" slid just 31.5 % and retained a #8 ranking, with $2.3 million earned and a cumulative $36.9 million gross. People are returning to this film again and again and it has developed a loyal and passionate base of support. "Soul Surfer" has now doubled its production budget, making it a surprising and breakout success.
Within the rest of the Top 10, every other film except "Rio" lost more than 50% of its previous weekend's attendance, largely due to theater counts being slashed with the arrivals of "Thor" and "Fast Five". Then again, it is the transition from spring to summer and large amounts of screens were slashed from films such as "Source Code", "Insidious", "Hanna", and "Scream 4".
"The Beaver" debuts, a "Cave" continues to amaze, contrary to reports - there were no dragons after all, and a possible new record in infamy may have been set. More analysis after the cut:
