User blog:Ceauntay/RIO Easily Tops Box Office; Warner Bros. SCOOBY-DOO! THE MOVIE vs. Wes Craven's SCREAM 4

As expected, Carlos Saldanha's animated 3D feature Rio topped the North American box office on Friday, April 15, earning $10.2m according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Rio features the voices of Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Jane Lynch, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Mann, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, and others. It seems likely that Rio's take will reach the expected $38m by Sunday evening. At no. 2, featuring voices of Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle, Megan Fox, Mariah Carey and Mike Myers, grossed $8.7m should be rounding behind Rio with $25m for a three week cume to $250m.

Debuting at a far disappointed No. 3 is Wes Craven's Scream 4, featuring Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Hayden Panettiere, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, and Emma Roberts, opened with $8m at 3,305 locations. That translated into an underwhelming — for the opening day of a horror flick belonging to a popular franchise — $2,421 per theater. Also in the Scream 4 cast: Rory Culkin, Mary McDonnell, Heather Graham, Adam Brody, Erik Knudsen, Dane Farwell, and Nico Tortorella. Despite 3D surcharges, Rio's per-theater average was only slightly ahead that of Scream 4 — $2,666 at 3,826 sites. But as a kiddie flick, Rio will surely do considerably better on Saturday and Sunday, leaving Scream 4 way behind when final weekend figures are tallied. Many had been predicting Scream 4 would open with about $30m; now it looks like that figure will be much closer to $20m. But it will have to do better than ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie'' on Saturday and Sunday so that it can come in second. Up three spots (compared to Thursday) at no. 3, James Wan's Insidious, featuring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Barbara Hershey, collected $2.32m, down a mere 29% compared to last Friday. That's quite remarkable for your average horror flick, which means that the reported $20m+ distributor FilmDistrict has spent on marketing their film has been put to good use.