Weekend Box Office: April 15-17

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Rio - $39.2 million

2.  Scream 4 - $18.6 million

3.  Hop - $10.7 million

4.  Hanna - $7.28 million

5.  Soul Surfer- $7.26 million

6.  Arthur - $6.75 million

7.  Insidious - $6.74 million

8.  Source Code - $6.2 million

9.  Your Highness - $4 million

10.  Limitless - $3.6 million

It's true...everyone wants to go to Rio.  At least they did at the box office this weekend.  Rio's combination of 3D-animation, an all-star cast, and an exceptionally catchy soundtrack proved to be a winner with audiences, ringing up $39.2 million and just barel passing Johnny Depp's Rango to become 2011's best opening weekend so far.  Not bad.

Now what the hell happened with Scream 4?  The fourth installment of Wes Craven's horror-comedy franchise bottomed out this weekend, dropping 18% from Friday to Saturday to finish the weekend with $18.6 million.  Even Sucker Punch opened better than that.  It looks like interest in this one wasn't as high as everyone thought it would be.

Russell Brand's Hop survived the opening weekend of Rio, landing in third place with $10.7 million.  That brings its total up to $82 million, which is a far cry better than Brand's other film, the remake of Arthur, which dropped 45% and down to sixth place with $6.75 million. 

Soul Surfer continues to do well with the family crowd, dropping only 31% to earn $7.27 million.  Hanna also did all right this weekend, finishing up with $7.28 million. 

Your Highness? The less said about that, the better.

Next weekend sees the releases of the Reese Witherspoon/Robert Pattinson circus romance Water for Elephants (I'm not gonna lie, I loved this book and I can't wait for the movie), Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family, and the latest installment in Disney's nature series, African Cats.