Best Film: The Social Network
‘Rio’ Takes Flight at Box Office, Delivering the Best Start This Year
The 3-D animated film “Rio” made a $40 million debut at the North American box office this past weekend, according to early estimates, soaring to the biggest opening so far this year.
“Rio,” which was released by News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, easily outpaced the weekend’s other wide release, director Wes Craven’s “Scream 4.” The horror-comedy film, from the Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films, earned $19.3 million. (News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.)
Featuring the voice of Jesse Eisenberg as a macaw that can’t fly, “Rio” built on its strong international debut last weekend and has grossed a total of $168 million world-wide after 10 days. The G-rated film is poised to continue strongly, as children head into their spring-break and Easter holidays. The next big animated films, the Weinstein Co.’s “Hoodwinked Too!” and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s “Kung Fu Panda 2,” don’t open until late April and May, respectively.
The “Rio” box-office result comes as the film industry faces a 19% decline in year-to-date ticket sales compared with the same time frame in 2010, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “Rango,” an animated film from Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, had generated the previous best opening weekend this year, with a gross of $38.1 million.
cecille
/ April 18, 2011Congrats to Jesse and everyone involved in the film, especially the animators! Have seen the movie twice now and both times I enjoyed it tremendously! Hope it has staying power.
JuL
/ April 18, 2011congrats. very nice.
um, ignorant question: if the box office does well, does it mean the actors get more payment in terms of cash? Or did they get paid a certain sum after they signed on the job, and then no more?
… coz I have no idea how that works…
cecille
/ April 19, 2011It depends on their negotiation when they signed on to their deals. As far as I know, it’s the big stars like Tom Cruise and Leo DiCaprio who is in practice of this. They agree to a lesser upfront fee but they are promised a percentage of the profits which could also include DVD sales, etc, and their movies are always huge, and they end up getting more.
This is mainly an assumption but since Jesse signed on for this before he hit the big leagues with TSN’s success, I doubt he got the same deal. Anne Hathaway maybe. Still the important thing is Jesse had a great time being involved in the film and I’m sure he’s happy it went to no. 1 at the box office.
JuL
/ April 19, 2011thanks so much cecille! got it.
Céline
/ April 22, 2011Rio is better than Scream 4, sorry for the team… I did see the original, so Rio is a good movie… better than Scream 4.
Céline
/ April 22, 2011I “didnt” see the original vers, so it’s a good movie… It’s not against Jesse Eisenberg so.