'Hannah Montana' sings high note

By Sarah Sluis

Kids really can rule the world...or at least the box office. Tweens turned out in force for Hannah Montana: The Movie, which opened to $34 million. It's the largest April opening for Disney, and a surprise number-one finish. The previous week's winner, Fast & Furious, dropped a steep 59%, leaving Hannah Montana room to grab the top spot. The news definitively proves that star Miley Cyrus can open movies (her concert film last year posted a similarly spectacular opening weekend), but pessimists can still harp that it's her alter ego that draws in audiences. They'll soon have a chance to prove their case (or not): Her transition film, The Last Song, a romance penned by Nicholas Sparks, starts filming this June. A caveat: Many Hannah Montana fans will still be way too young to watch that film, as I suspect the Montana audience skews younger than the 7 to 13 year-olds tracking surveys say were Cyrus' main audience this past weekend. I was astonished to see a preschooler on a bus, fidgeting because her nanny was ignoring her in favor of US Weekly, suddenly shriek and point out the one tabloid figure recognizable to her: "Miley! Miley!" Those pre-K kids will go see a G-rated Hannah Montana movie, but their parents might give pause before taking them to a movie billed as romance.

Monsters vs. Aliens coasted through at number three, dropping just 30% to earn $22.6 million. Seth Rogen-starrer Observe and Report opened lower than expected with $11.1 million. While its dark humor clearly differentiated it from that other Segway security guard film, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the drug use, violence, and ambiguous date rape thinned the audiences, giving it an opening in line with Rogen's other tough sell, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Lower down on the list, Dragonball Evolution opened at number eight. Based on an anime franchise popular a decade before, the title has lost most of its cachet here but is doing well abroad. It earned a modest $4.6 million, about all Fox expected.

Three films in the top ten are in their fourth week of release: Knowing (#5, $6.6 million), I Love You, Man (#5, $6.4 million) and Duplicity (#10, $2.9 million), with only Duplicity below the $50 million mark. Playing at just three locations, rock band documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil had the highest per-screen average of the week, earning $11,000 at each theatre.

This friday, Zac Efron will compete for the Disney audience in Warner Bros.' 17 Again, along with British-accented action sequel Crank: High Voltage and Washington D.C. reporter thriller State of Play.