Weekend Box Office: April 29 - May 1

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Fast Five - $83.6 million

2.  Rio - $14.4 million

3.  Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family - $10 million

4.  Water for Elephants - $9.1 million

5.  Prom - $5 million

6.  Hoodwinked Too!  Hood vs. Evil - $4.1 million

7.  Soul Surfer - $3.3 million

8.  Insidious - $2.6 million

9.  Hop - $2.55 million

10.  Source Code - $2.53

And....cue summer!  Wow.  Fast Five, the fifth in the seemingly never-ending Fast and the Furious series finally kicked open the doors of the 2011 box office, opening with a staggering $83.6 million.  That's the highest opening for the entire franchise so far, as well as Universal's biggest opening weekend since 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  Overseas, where the film opened last week, Fast Five has grossed an additional $81 million, bringing its worldwide total to $165 million already.  So, if we didn't already learn this with the last film, we know now:  April + Fast and the Furious = great big hit.

It was not such a great weekend for the other new releases, with audiences choosing the animated hit Rio over the who-asked-for-this-in-the-first-place sequel Hoodwinked Too!.  In its third weekend, Rio crossed the $100 million mark with a $14.4 million finish, while Hoodwinked sputtered with $4.1 million.  Disney's Prom didn't fare much better, opening quietly with $5 million, while that film's target audience was still enjoying their Robert Pattinson fix, as Water for Elephants finished the weekend with a decent $9.1 million.

Tyler Perry's latest Madea adventure had its typical big drop in its second weekend, but has so far grossed $41 million (and, like Fast Five, we'll probably see another sequel soon).  With Easter over and done with, Hop has almost totally lost its audience with an 80% drop this weekend.  Insidious continues to play well - the $1.5 million budgeted horror film has grossed $48 million so far.

Well, that's it for the warmup act...summer movie season kicks off officially next week with the release of Thor.  So far, it looks like we're off to a good start.