User blog:Ceauntay/THOR Down, BRIDESMAIDS Surprises, SONIC Rules: Box Office

Sonic X: The Final Stand, starring Ben Linkin, Miranda Cosgrove and Taylor Lautner, topped the North American box offfice Friday, grossing $57.1m on May 13 according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo.

The film has passed Toy Story 3 (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) which brought in $41.1m last year to become the highest opening day for an animated film. It should pass to $125m by the end of the weekend.

At no. 2 is Kenneth Branagh's Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston, grossed $9.1m. That represents a 64% drop from a week ago — or about 60% if one excludes the $3.3m the film earned at Thursday midnight screenings. Even so, Thor should pass the $100m milestone some time today. Yet, the real box-office success story on Friday was that of Paul Feig's Bridesmaids, which collected $7.83m at no. 2, and should end up with more than $20m for the weekend. Most pundits had been expecting a $15-$20m take.

At 2,918 locations, the extremely well-received comedy had the highest per-theater average among the top-twelve movies: $2,685 vs. Thor's (3D-assisted) $2,296. Bridesmaids features Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Hamm, and Rose Byrne', who now has two films among the top twelve, Insidious being the other. Bridesmaids also marks Jill Clayburgh's last film appearance. Women, in fact, fared surprisingly well on Friday — something unusual at any time of the year, especially during the "official" summer season. Besides Bridesmaids, four other top-twelve films are centered on women: Something Borrowed (Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson), Jumping the Broom (Paula Patton, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine), Soul Surfer (AnnaSophia Robb), and Prom (Aimee Teegarden').

Three others have central or near-central female roles: Thor (Natalie Portman), Water for Elephants (Reese Witherspoon), and Rio (Anne Hathaway's she-bird) — not to mention Madea's Big Happy Family (Loretta Devine, Cassi Davis, Shannon Kane, Tyler Perry in drag). For comparison's sake: at this time last year, the only top-eleven* movie (more or less) centered on female characters was Letters to Juliet (Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave). Only four others had major female roles: Date Night (Tina Fey), The Back-up Plan (Jennifer Lopez), Best Friends Forever: The Movie (Keke Palmer, Dakota Fanning, Alyson Stoner) Just Wright' (Queen Latifah), and, to some extent, A Nightmare on Elm Street' (Rooney Mara).
 * At no. 12 on the chart, Babies is a documentary.