Brave Fells the Competition

Pixar showed Honest Abe where it’s at; Brave‘s opening weekend saw the animation giant’s first female-led film pull in $66.7 million at the box office, well exceeding the $16.5 million earned by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which debuted at third place and as of this writing has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of only 37%. It looks like Theodore Roosevelt: Sasquatch Tamer might be benched for the foreseeable future, huh?

Meanwhile, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted fell to spot number two; its weekend gross of $20.2 million brings its total so far to $157.5 million. Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (weekend gross $10 million, total gross $108.5 million) fell two spots to number four, while Snow White and the Huntsman (weekend gross $8 million, total gross $137 million) held steady at number five.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, co-starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley, opened in just over 1,600 theaters and was able to pull in only a wince-inducing $3.8 million, giving it one of the worst openings of Carrell’s career. (Since he became a leading man, anyways; low-budget indies Homegrown (1998) and Tomorrow Night (1998), in which he played “Party Extra with Funny Pants (uncredited)” and “Mail Room Guy Without Glasses,” respectively, didn’t cross the $4 million-mark, either.)

King among limited releases this weekend was To Rome with Love, the latest from Woody Allen, which earned $379,371 in only five theaters for a massive per-screen average of $75,874. The Invisible War, Kirby Dick’s documentary on rape in the military, earned $19,600 in four theaters, and pseudo-mockumentary Kumaré took in $10,540 in the same.

Out next week and trying to unseat Brave‘s Princess Merida (good luck with that) are Ted, Madea’s Witness Protection and People Like Us, with Beasts of the Southern Wild, Magic Mike, Unforgivable, Neil Young Journeys and Take This Waltz hitting theaters in limited release.