By Sarah Sluis
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opened to $63.5 million this weekend, slightly exceeding the first-week revenue of this year's animated competitor Wall-E,
which earned $63.08 million. Because these numbers are box-office
estimates, it's possible that the figures have been rounded up to give Madagascar the reigning position among this year's CGI films. Even matching Wall-E's take is impressive, given that fall's animated features have generally opened to $30 to $40 million. 2007's Bee Movie, for example, debuted with $38 million. Overall, this fall has been strong for family-oriented films: Beverly Hills Chihuahua took 
advantage of a lull in family fare and drove to a multiple-week #1 finish, and HSM3,
which opened two weeks ago, dropped less than 40% this week to earn
$9.2 million and the highest finish for an existing release (#3). Of
course, the box office is only a starting point for HSM3's DVD, soundtrack, and merchandise sales.
In second place, Role Models earned $19.2 million, exceeding
expectations and flabbergasting those that expect all R-rated, heavily
marketed comedies to fare the same. Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which finished at number five this week, earning $6.5 million, only opened to $10 million.
Changeling earned $6.2 million this weekend, dropping only
22%. While the film has garnered mediocre reviews, with critics
perhaps holding their praise for Eastwood's winter release, Gran Torino,
the word-of-mouth spin on the movie is "it's nothing like the commercials
make it seem," commentary that could raise interest in the film among
those who wrote it off based on the reviews. A serial child abductor
can do that to a movie.
In a disappointing debut, Soul Men earned $5.6 million. Perhaps those looking for a career retrospective of Bernie Mac chose Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa instead?
Among the bottom five, Saw V and The Haunting of Molly Hartley both tapered off, earning $4.2 and $3.4 million each. Despite similar performances this week, Saw V's stellar opening week accounts for a total box-office gross quintuple that of Molly Hartley.
At number nine, The Secret Life of Bees continues to buzz along, also dropping only 22% from last weekend. Finally, Eagle Eye,
at number ten, is now less than $4 million from crossing the $100
million mark. While it's already in its seventh week of release, a few
more weeks of crossing the $1 million mark would bring it to the
coveted seven-figure box-office total.
This week has one major release, the twenty-second installment of
the James Bond franchise, so most of these titles will stay in the top
ten for another week.
Complete studio estimates here.
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