Russell Brand’s Easter-themed movie takeover proved more successful than any of us imagined it would be, as Hop this weekend became the year’s biggest opening movie.
Debuting with a record-setting $38m, the fluffy family comedy beat this year’s previous big earner Rango by just under $1m.
On the opposite end of the audience spectrum – i.e. those older than five – Duncan Jones’ sophomore sci-fi Source Code also came out trumps, opening in second place with $15m.
More importantly, it confirmed that Jones is far more than a one trick pony, Source Code matching the Brit director’s debut Moon for thoughtful sci-fi storytelling.
In the rest of the chart, horror Insidious (from the guys behind the first Saw ) was third with $13m, last week’s number one Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 2 fell to fourth ($10.2m) and Bradley Cooper’s Limitless rounded out the top five with $9.4m.
Last week’s box office hold-overs came in the form of The Lincoln Lawyer in sixth ($7m), a struggling Sucker Punch in seventh ($6m), Rango in eighth ($7.6m) and Paul in ninth ($4.3m).
Completing the top ten was Jonathan Liebesman’s divisive alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles , which added $3.5m to its money pot. That’s a total of $78m in the US alone – do we smell a possible franchise?
