User blog:Ceauntay/RIO Tops, SCOOBY-DOO! THE MOVIE Stayed Strong, SCREAM 4 to Underperform? – Friday Box Office Early Estimates

Warner Bros. ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie'' will apparently go from first to third position this weekend at the North American box office according to early, rough estimates found at Deadline.com. Rio, partly thanks to 3D surcharges, will easily top the chart with an estimated $38m at 3,826 theaters, 2,591 of which are 3D. Directed by Carlos Saldanha, Rio earned an estimated $10m on Friday. Rio features the voices of Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez and Jamie Foxx, among others. At no. 2, Warner Bros. ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie, featuring voices of Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle, Megan Fox, Mariah Carey and Mike Myers, took home $8.7m at 4,119 locations, with 233 of IMAX theaters, and should be rounding behind Rio'' with $25m for a three week cume to $250m.

At no. 3 was Wes Craven's Scream 4, featuring Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Hayden Panettiere, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Mary McDonnell, Heather Graham, and Adam Brody, took in an estimated $8.5m at 3,305 locations on Friday and is expected to cume at $20m by Sunday evening. Those aren't exactly great figures for a movie from a popular franchise at nearly 3,500 sites — well, even though the last Scream flick was released 11 years ago. Insidious was no. 4, with $2.3m on Friday. The horror flick starring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne was down a mere 23% from a week ago. That's quite remarkable. At no. 5 with $2.2m were both Hop and Soul Surfer, followed closely behind by Russell Brand's Arthur with $2.1m and Saoirse Ronan's Hanna with $2m.

Needless to say, there'll likely be some switching around when official studio estimates are released Saturday morning. More adjustments will follow when box-office actuals come out on Monday.