Russell Brand Invades the Box Office

Hop (an animated film starring Russell Brand) held onto its top spot at the box office this past weekend ($21.6 million weekend gross, $68.1 total gross), while Arthur (a live-action film starring Russell Brand) made it to second place in its first weekend with a gross of $12.6 million. The new release Hanna, about a 16-year-old assassin (played by Saoirse Ronan, not Russell Brand) earned $12.3 million, enough to put it in third place. The inspirational surfing movie Soul Surfer made $11.1 million in its first weekend, enough to get it to spot number four. Rounding out the top five was Insidious; the haunted house movie made by the creators of the Saw franchise earned $9.7 million over its second weekend, bringing its total gross to $27 million.

The $9.5 million weekend gross of new release Your Highness, a sword-and-sorcery spoof starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman (but mostly Danny McBride), wasn’t quite enough to get the film into the top five. New limited releases were the nature documentary Born to be Wild ($850,000), No Eres Tu, Soy Yo ($600,000), Meek’s Cutoff ($22,334), Blank City ($11,969), Meet Monica Velour ($8,000), Henry’s Crime ($7,528), Ceremony ($7,300) and American: The Bill Hicks Story ($6,800).

Out in wide release next week are Rio and Scream 4, with Armadillo, Atlas Shrugged, The Conspirator (Robert Redford’s directorial follow-up to 2007’s Lions for Lambs), The Double Hour, Dumbstruck, Footprints, The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, The Princess of Montpensier, A Screaming Man and The Tenant all hitting theaters in limited release.