Prometheus Beaten By Madagascar 3 In The Box Office

Despite the fact that Ridley Scott’s semi-prequel Prometheus was tracking for an impressive $68M domestic weekend, it turns out that the power of millions of families from animated family threequel Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted has beaten out the sci-fi horror, with Madagascar 3 snatching the #1 spot for the domestic weekend. The animated threequel grossed $60.4M, comfortably beating out Prometheus’ still-excellent-for-an-R-rated-movie $49.5M.

Opening with a $21.4M Friday, followed up by $16.1M for Saturday and $12.4M for Sunday, it still wasn’t enough for Prometheus to beat the generic family appeal of Madagascar 3. The total is most likely a bit of disappointment for Fox, who estimated a $56M weekend on Friday. Adding on the $91.5M of international grosses, Prometheus has made $145M worldwide – a profit on the estimated $130M budget. But not the $500M+ marketing campaign, of course. E

In other box office news, the titan that is Marvel’s The Avengers has smashed past $570M domestically, but its stranglehold on other movies is lifting.