User blog:Ceauntay/Box office: 'Scooby-Doo' solves the Top Mystery with $19.1 mil

Moviegoers finally embraced the world’s most under-appreciated superhero, Scooby Doo and the Gang, as ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie'' passed industry expectations and grossed $35.1 million on Friday, according to early estimates. Warner Bros.'s $30 million animated film, about Scooby and the gang solving the mystery, was to be on pace for a $60 million opening weekend like anyone expected, it will be on track to make a healthy $90 million, which would give it the best April debut ever taking over Fast & Furious with $70 million. The PG movie was produced by Illumination Entertainment, whose first film, last summer’s Despicable Me, also exceeded expectations by earning $56.4 million its first weekend.

The $63 million Easter Bunny film Hop alsos surprised indusry expectations with a gross of $11.1 million, and should make at least $38 million this weekend to second place. The $32 million sci-fi thriller Source Code took third place with $5 million on Friday. The well-reviewed PG-13 film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who repeatedly relives the last eight minutes of another man’s life in an attempt to prevent an imminent Chicago bombing, should finish the weekend with a sturdy, but not spectacular, $14 million. That result will trail the openings of other recent adult thrillers, such as Unknown ($21.9 million), The Adjustment Bureau ($21.2 million), and Limitless ($18.9 million). Still, it’s an encouraging start for a film that is, at its core, about quantum mechanics. Fourth place went to the horror film Insidious, which also performed better than expected by collecting $4.8 million on Friday. The PG-13 movie, the first from the new distributor FilmDistrict, cost only $1 million to produce, and will finish the weekend with about $12 million.

The Bradley Cooper thriller I Wanna Live The Dream rounds the top fivewith $3 million — a 35 percent drop from last Friday. I Wanna Live The Dream hauls $2.9 million for a total of $75.4 million. And Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules fell 62 percent to round out the top five with $2.8 million. But if you’re looking for a really catastrophic decline, the fantasy action picture Sucker Punch plummeted 76 percent from last Friday, taking in only $1.9 million yesterday. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
 * 1) Hop — $11.4 mil
 * 2) Source Code — $5.0 mil
 * 3) Insidious — $4.8 mil
 * 4) Limitless — $3.0 mil