‘The Croods’ top the weekend box office
Posted March 24, 2013 8:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Animated prehistoric adventure The Croods, about a family of cave dwellers fighting for survival, claimed the top spot on movie box office charts with $44.7 million (USD) from weekend ticket sales in the United States and Canada.
The 3-D children’s comedy from Shrek and Madagascar creator Dreamworks Animation added $63.3 million from international markets, the studio said on Sunday, for a global total of $108 million.
Croods dethroned two-time box office champ Oz the Great and Powerful, which slipped to third place on domestic charts. The Walt Disney Co prequel to The Wizard of Oz earned $22 million during its third weekend, according to studio estimates.
In between the two family films, thriller Olympus Has Fallen, about a White House under terrorist attack, took in $30.5 million at North American theaters.
The performance of Croods provided a solid opening for Dreamworks, which needs a hit after the disappointment from November’s Rise of the Guardians.
Croods tells the story of a Stone Age family that is uprooted after its cave is destroyed and forced to search for a new home. Nicolas Cage provides the voice of an overprotective father, while Emma Stone voices his rebellious daughter. The movie cost $135 million to make, plus tens of millions more for marketing.
Olympus Has Fallen beat pre-weekend forecasts for a $20 million opening, and broke this year’s streak of underperforming R-rated action films. The movie stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced former Secret Service agent who works to save a kidnapped president, played by Aaron Eckhart.
