Weekend Box Office: 'Madagascar 3' Tops 'Prometheus' in Huge Weekend

In a bit of a surprise, the heralded return of director Ridley Scott to the science fiction film realm was thwarted by talking zoo animals, as Scott’s Prometheus came in second place to Dreamwork’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted in a huge box office weekend. Still, regardless of its second place finish, Prometheus still had the highest debut for a film in the Aliens franchise and was the second highest opening in Ridley Scott’s directorial career. The first place finisher, Madagascar 3, finished with over $60 million in its debut. Though down just slightly from the previous film in the popular animated franchise, the number is still highly impressive considering it is the third installment in the family-friendly film series. The top five films this week earned about $160 million, a huge improvement from the same time last year.

Hit the jump to see a full rundown of this weekend’s box office results.

The success of Madagascar 3 is surprising, considering family friendly films like Kung Fu Panda 2, Happy Feet Two, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked have underperformed in the past year. According to Box Office Mojo, the film’s success could be a result of beneficial scheduling, as the last large animated film in The Lorax released over three months ago. The marketing for the film has also been very strong, with eye-catching and infuriatingly catchy commercials all over the airwaves. The animated flick earned $60.3 million in its debut, good enough to take first place.

In second is the highly touted return of director Ridley Scott in Prometheus, which earned just over $51 million in its debut weekend. While second place isn’t exactly the type of finish most expected, the total is still impressive considering the film’s R rating. While marketing for the movie has been very strong, the film does run the risk of having its success taper off severely over the next couple of weeks due to negative word of mouth and reviews. The film holds a 74 percent critical and audience review from Rotten Tomatoes, which, while not bad, isn’t exactly the critical acclaim most expected. Still, the film’s visual prowess and sci-fi background should give the film some legs for at least the next weekend.

In third place was last week’s number one, Snow White and the Huntsman, which finished with $23 million. The film was down 59 percent in its second week, a huge drop which can probably be credited to the debut of Madagascar and Prometheus. The film has made around $100 million domestically, which is over half of its total budget.

The only Sony film in the top ten this week is Men in Black 3, which fell to fourth place with just under $14 million. The film fell over 50 percent from last week, and is struggling to keep pace with the previous film in the franchise through the same point in time. While the film seems to be struggling domestically, MIB 3 has made over $350 million at the foreign box office, which easily accounts for the film’s huge $225 million budget.

And coming in at fifth place is this summer’s box office Goliath, Marvel’s The Avengers, which finished with just over $11 million. It seemed like The Avengers would easily make it to the $600 million mark, though the film’s success seems to be dwindling fairly quickly. The Avengers has made $572 million so far.

Look for another Sony film, the Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg starred That’s My Boy to make its debut this weekend.

Domestic Box Office Top Five