It took 3,239 theaters, millions of moviegoers, and one very badly behaved teddy bear to make it happen, but happen it did: Ted, the raunchy R-rated comedy from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, stormed the box office all the way to the top with a better-than-expected $54.1 million - and that’s without 3D! This makes its opening the third best bow ever for an R-rated comedy behind The Hangover II and Sex and the City. According to exit polls, the audience for Ted was 56 percent male.
Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike did not have a 56 percent male audience, but it did make $39.2 million thanks to an audience that was 73 percent female - which, if you take into account the still-historic open for Sex and the City, proves that women often outspend men at the box office. Tatum’s had quite a year in 2012 with two other high profile successes, The Vow and 21 Jump Street.
Last week’s champ, Disney/Pixar’s Brave, fell to third with another $34 million in receipts, bringing its domestic haul to $131.7 million, something I’m sure even Scrooge McDuck would approve of. Analysts expect Brave to finish domestically with about $225 million.
Madea’s Witness Protection and Madagascar 3 rounded out the top five.
