Tops at the Box Office: Thor holds strong; Bridesmaids excels

1. Thor- $34.5M/$119M
In it's second week, Marvel's mighty god of thunder dipped 48% which is better than Iron Man 2 did last year. The problem is that Thor didn't get off to nearly the mammoth start as that film, and so if the goal is to reach or surpass Iron Man's final tally then a lot of work needs to be done. On the plus side, Thor is doing remarkably well overseas, earning nearly $200M so far.

2. Bridesmaids- $24.4M

Despite a ton of smack talk from a number of supposed "experts" about how nobody wants to see women doing the same things men do in any number of raunchy comedies, the fact remains that Bridesmaids was a phenomenal success. As far as R-rated comedies go, does it compare to The Hangover? No, it doesn't, but it's still be the biggest opening for one since last year's Due Date. And let's not forget that the majority of the film's buzz came from word-of-mouth, spread via numerous screenings before the actual release date. Bridesmaids had a lot of momentum going in, and after doing so well opposite Thor this week it should have no problem shooting past it's reported $32M production budget. The one thing that really surprises me is that the audience wasn't more evenly split, with a reported 67% of them being female. I expect that will change once girlfriends start letting their men know just how funny and broad the humor is.
3. Fast Five- $19.5M/$169M
The highest grossing film in the franchise? Yessiree Bob. Fast Five has earned $440M worldwide already. Amazing.
4. Priest- $14.5M
I'm surprised at just how well Priest performed in it's debut weekend, considering that buzz has been at absolute zero in the two years we've been waiting for it to come out. Still, $14.5M isn't going to light anybody's fire, performing worse than last year's Legion, which was also from director Scott Stewart and starring Paul Bettany.
5. Rio- $8M/$125M
6. Jumping the Broom- $7.3M/$26M
7. Something Borrowed- $7M/$25.6M
8. Water for Elephants- $4.1M/$48.5M
9. Madea's Big Happy Family- $2.2M/$50.2M
10. Soul Surfer- $1.8M/$39.2M