ARTICLE
Weekend Box Office - Holiday Bunnies "Hop" To The Top
By InCinemas / 04 Apr 2011 (Monday)
This weekend Hop, and its relatively small $63 million budget, proved that you don't have to spend a ton of money to make a computer animated movie. Of course, it also proved the point that you get what you pay for. The cutesy yet rated-PG attempt at capitolizing on an Easter-ish franchise got a mediocre reception, both from critics and audiences.
In what is turning out to be a horrendously slow year for ticket sales, Hop's $38 million opening is more than just average for a seasonal second string animated feature. It has somehow managed to be the biggest opening of the year to date, just inching out Rango's debut last month. Of course, with that kind of success one can only expect to see teaser trailers for an even less desirable Hop 2 not far in the future.
Tech thriller Source Code landed a very distant and very weak second place with just $15 million. It too looks to turn a profit though, opening against a minimal $32 million budget. Horror entry Insidious settled for a close third with only $13 million.
Audiences didn't seem too interested in the watered-down PG-13 version of the Academy Award winning The King's Speech. Despite opening in over 1,000 venues it barely banked $1 million, putting it at number fourteen for the weekend.
For the full weekend top ten totals, check out the chart below:
