Scoring a defiant US$ 56.2 million on this week's estimated check book is the Universal's adaptation of Snow White fairy tale - "Snow White and the Huntsman"; which easily won the weekend despite not having premium 3D or IMAX surcharges. This year's first week of June has produced some delightful result for Universal as SWATH swept across even the most optimistic prediction of $48 million, at best. It won the weekend by beating the second-week "MIB 3" and former king "The Avengers" which is now on its fifth week, for the silver and bronze medal respectively. SWATH's number came a thud better than last year's champ on this weekend "X-Men: First Class" ($55.1 million). It also shoots past "Mirror Mirror" ($18.1 million), "Robin Hood" ($36.1 million) and "Wrath of the Titans" ($33.5 million) among similar movies.
Although words of mouth could have been vital in this case, the numbers were less than worrying for Universal as the studio reported a slight jump for the Saturday, indicating that the score B is not much a working factor. It will be interesting to see how it will fare next weekend when Fox's giant "Prometheus" will definitely opens bigger. SWATH started out the opening weekend with a solid $1.383 million on Thursday's midnight screenings. It closed the first day with a healthy $20.6 million, followed by Saturday's $21.3 million and an estimated $14.4 million on Sunday. Thus, the first weekend score for SWATH is $56.2 million from 3773 theaters (average $14,910).
Disney's "The Avengers" scored another milestone this weekend. It dipped 45% from last week's take to $20.3 million take to raise its cum to a gigantic $552.7 million. The number beat "The Dark Knight" number to go third on the all time domestic box office record. Oversea's number stood at $802.5 million at the moment to give the superhero assemble pics a huge $1,355.2 million to overtake the final chapter of Harry Potter to claim the third for worldwide gross. The rest of the box office chart looks something like this:
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross ($) | Change (%) | Total Gross ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN | 56,225,000 | NEW | 56,225,000 |
| 2 | MEN IN BLACK 3 | 29,300,000 | -46.3 | 112,300,000 |
| 3 | MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS | 20,273,000 | -44.7 | 552,737,000 |
| 4 | BATTLESHIP | 4,810,000 | -56.5 | 55,123,000 |
| 5 | THE DICTATOR | 4,725,000 | -49.1 | 50,835,000 |
| 6 | THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL | 4,600,000 | -27.9 | 25,497,000 |
| 7 | WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING | 4,430,000 | -37.9 | 30,723,000 |
| 8 | DARK SHADOWS | 3,860,000 | -48.6 | 70.834,000 |
| 9 | CHERNOBYL DIARIES | 3,045,000 | -61.7 | 14,416,000 |
| 10 | FOR GREATER GLORY | 1,800,000 | NEW | 1,800,000 |
| 11 | THE HUNGER GAME | 1,500,000 | -35.1 | 398,274,000 |
| 12 | BERNIE | 937,000 | 10.0 | 3,651,000 |