Animated prehistoric adventure The Croods, about a family of cave dwellers fighting for survival, claimed the top spot on movie box-office charts with €34.3 million from weekend ticket sales in the US and Canada.
The 3D children’s comedy from Shrek and Madagascar creator DreamWorks Animation added €48.7 million from international markets, the studio said on Sunday, for a global total of €83 million.
The Croods dethroned two-time box office champ Oz the Great and Powerful, which slipped to third place on domestic charts. The Walt Disney Co. prequel to The Wizard of Oz earned €16.9 million during its third weekend, according to studio estimates.
In between the two family films, thriller Olympus Has Fallen, about a White House under terrorist attack, took in €23.5 million at North American (US and Canadian) theatres.
The performance of The Croods provided a solid opening for DreamWorks, which needs a hit after the disappointment from Rise of the Guardians.
Box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. Jeff Bock said the opening bodes well for DreamWorks, which he said is in the process of establishing new films ripe for sequels.
“It’s a great start for a spring film, especially one that’s animated,” he said.
Bock predicted that the film will gross between €135 and €154 million over the next two months or so.
Croods tells the story of a Stone Age family that is uprooted after its cave is destroyed and forced to search for a new home. Nicolas Cage provides the voice of an overprotective father, while Emma Stone voices his rebellious daughter. The movie cost €104 million to make, plus tens of millions more for marketing.
Ahead of the weekend, Wall Street analysts said Croods needed a domestic opening around €30.7 million to ease investor concerns following the weak results from Guardians, which opened with €18.5 million and grossed €233.1 million total during its global run.
The poor performance of the holiday-themed Guardians forced DreamWorks to write down €67 million and contributed to 350 layoffs taking place this year, the company said in February.
DreamWorks Animation chief operating officer Ann Daly said she expects the film to do “phenomenally well” over the next few weeks, pointing to its A CinemaScore rating and the fact that many US children will be off from school and more likely to head to the movies.
In the coming weeks, Croods will have the family audience largely to itself as Oz plays out. Starring James Franco as a small-time magician who becomes the leader of the magical land, Oz brought its global total to €274.2 million through Sunday.
Olympus Has Fallen beat preweekend forecasts for a €15.3 million opening, and broke this year’s streak of underperforming R-rated action films. The movie stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced former Secret Service agent who works to save a kidnapped President, played by Aaron Eckhart.
Meanwhile, raunchy adult comedy Spring Breakers, which racked up big sales a week ago in just three theatres, expanded into 1,100 theatres, nearly 3,000 fewer than Croods. The low-budget comedy took the sixth spot with €3.8 million.
Spring Breakers stars Oz hero Franco and former Disney Channel starlets Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens as partiers who behave badly during a trip to Florida.
Admission, a comedy starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, grossed €4.9 million and took fifth place. The €10 million production tells the story of a Princeton admissions officer who meets a college-bound student who may be the son she gave up for adoption.
Halle Berry thriller The Call took fourth place with €6.7 million in its second week in theatres. The film stars Berry as a 911 operator who tries to save a kidnapped teenager.