BULLSEYE, April 15: ‘Rio,’ ‘Scream 4,’ ‘Madea,’ ‘Five,’ More

Like a typical Thanksgiving dinner, this weekend will pit family fun against senseless violence.

Fox animation and Ice Age mastermind Carlos Saldanha deliver the cuddles with 3D feature Rio, while Dimension and returning director Wes Craven‘s Scream 4 revival brings the bloodletting. Both are showing healthy activity and interest on the Flixster Bullseye, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that Rio is going to clean up.

Its international bow last weekend was very big ($55 million), and its wide appeal should result in four-demo box office, especially as it leads in to Spring Break. Scream 3 opened to $35 million in 2000 on its way to $89 million domestic. This new iteration isn’t likely to come on as strong, and early mixed reviews call into question what legs it will have. But it’s got a bunch of fresh new meat faces to go with the returning crew, so maybe international audiences will be intrigued anew.

Related Stories

Movies

'Scream VI' Filmmakers Radio Silence Talk the "Feel-Good" Ending, Starting Fake Rumors and Not Giving Up on Neve Campbell

Movies

'Scream VI' Review: Ghostface Strikes Again in the Franchise's Goriest, Most Meta Entry Yet

The only potentially strong holdovers are Hop and Insidious, as last weekend’s new releases didn’t seem to jazz audiences much at all.

[Click grid for larger image.]

The following weekend, April 22, will bring Water for Elephants, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family and Disneynature’s African Cats. All three are skewing well into the over-25 female demo. Perry’s latest appears the weakest, indicating that perhaps he’s gone to the drag well one too many times. But a lot can change in a week. Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in Elephants are drawing surprisingly strong commitment to see their period romance. Those Twilight moms are ready to get their RoPat back on as November stays maddeningly far off.

The April 29 weekend just skirts the front of summer season, with Fast Five jumping off the line a week early. It’s gearing up for some major support from the dudes, who drove an astonishing $71 million opening over an April weekend in 2009 for Fast & Furious. It was the first of the series to try a date outside the summer scrum and it paid off handsomely. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night and Prom — nearly mirror opposites in terms of appeal — also roll out that weekend.

Here’s Pamela McClintock’s box-office preview for the weekend for added analysis.