'Think Like A Man' Tops US Weekend B-O

APRIL 23, 2012 - With its affable cast and broadly-appealing battle-of-the-sexes premise, Think Like a Man easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend ahead of The Lucky One and four-time champ The Hunger Games. In fourth place, Chimpanzee exceeded expectations and set a few minor records. Overall, the Top 12 earned an estimated US$123.3 million this weekend, which is a very slight improvement over the same frame last year.

Facing direct competition from The Lucky One, The Hunger Games miraculously had its lightest drop yet. The movie eased 32 percent to an estimated US$14.5 million, which brings its total to US$356.9 million (19th on the all-time list). Through 31 days in cinemas, The Hunger Games is only trailing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 by less than US$500,000, and is currently on pace to close above that movie's US$381 million total.

Even though it had to settle for fourth place, Chimpanzee got off to a great start for a documentary. In fact, its estimated US$10.2 million was the best three-day start for a Disney nature movie, and also the best debut for a nature documentary ever. Among all documentaries, it ranked third behind Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (US$29.5 million) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (US$23.9 million). 

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for April 20-22, 2012 weekend, in terms of rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)

1. (-) Think Like a Man (SGem) $33.0 million ( $33.0 million) 1

2. (-) The Lucky One (WB) $22.8 million ($22.8 million) 1

3. (1) The Hunger Games (LGF) $14.5 million ($356.9 million) 5

4. (-) Chimpanzee (BV) $10.2 million ($10.2 million) 1

5. (2) The Three Stooges (Fox) $9.2 million ($29.3 million) 2