Friday Report: 'Think Like a Man' Crushes Newcomers
The big winner on Friday appears to be a movie that isn't even out yet—audiences largely rejected all four brand-new movies, which may be the latest sign that anticipation for The Avengers is reaching a fever pitch. Thanks to the middling performance of the newcomers, Think Like a Man and The Lucky One easily held on to the top two spots.

Think Like a Man fell 55 percent to an estimated $5.5 million on Friday. It's now made $48.4 million, and is just two days away from topping Titanic 3D to become April 2012's highest-grossing movie. Meanwhile, The Lucky One dropped a slightly steeper 57 percent to $3.9 million. The Zac Efron-Nicholas Sparks romantic drama has earned a solid $32.5 million through eight days.

Even with what looked like the formula for rom-com success, The Five-Year Engagement only managed to generate $3.5 million in ticket sales on Friday. That's less than half the opening day of Bridesmaids ($7.8 million), and also way off from Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller's last collaboration, Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($6 million). The movie should wind up with just over $10 million for the three-day frame.

The Hunger Games added $2.7 million on Friday, which is a light 26 percent decline from last Friday. The movie reached a significant milestone yesterday—with a $364.2 million total, it's now tracking ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($362.7 million) for the first time in its run.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits opened in fifth place with an estimated $2.75 million. Among Aardman Animation titles, that's a slight improvement over Arthur Christmas's $2.4 million Wednesday opening, though it's notably off from Flushed Away ($4.7 million) and their last stop-motion animation movie Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit ($4.02 million). The Pirates! received an unimpressive "B" CinemaScore, and it could have a tough time crossing $10 million on the weekend.

Safe and The Raven both missed the Top Five yesterday. Safe opened to $2.55 million, which is lower than nearly all Jason Statham movies from the past decade (including Crank: High Voltage). The only Statham flicks it outperformed were 2008's The Bank Job ($1.7 million) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale ($1.06 million).

The Raven wound up in seventh place with an estimated $2.52 million. That doesn't hold a candle to practically all comparable movies, including Hannibal Rising ($4.75 million) and Zodiac ($4.2 million), not to mention V for Vendetta ($8.7 million).

Both Safe and The Raven should wind up between $6 and $7 million this weekend.

Chimpanzee fell 55 percent to an estimated $1.6 million. It has now made $15.3 million, and by the end of the weekend it will be close to passing Disneynature's Oceans ($19.4 million).

Related Stories:

'Think Like a Man' Takes the Lead



Related Chart:

Grosses for Friday, April 27, 2012