Despite a couple of new challengers, Rio managed to stay on top of the US box office, taking another $26 million. Added into its international gross, it’s already the highest earner of 2011 so far, although with the big summer season kicking off this week with Thor, it’s certain to see a lot more challengers soon.
Tyler Perry’s latest movie, Madea’s Big Happy Family, came in second place with $25.8 million, yet another great stars for the writer/actor/director who’s managed to have astonishing success, mainly with an African American audience, using mainly grass roots efforts to build himself up into a one-man media empire.
The Reece Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson flick Water For Elephants made $17.5 million, a solid but enremarkable start for the period actoner. Some wondered whether despite trying to sell it as pure romance, whether it was the wrong time of year for what looks like a period movie, and while the jury is still out on that, it is feasible it would have made more at Christmas.
The only other new entry was Disney’s documentary, African Cats, which took a decent $6.4 million, marking another Earth day success for what it turning into a fairly profitable franchise for the House Of Mouse (following Earth and Oceans).
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of April 22nd-24th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Rio | $26.8 | $81.2 |
| 2 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family | $25.7 | $25.7 |
| 3 | Water For Elephants | $17.5 | $17.5 |
| 4 | Hop | $12.4 | $100.5 |
| 5 | Scream 4 | $7.1 | $31.1 |
| 6 | African Cats | $6.4 | $6.4 |
| 7 | Soul Surfer | $5.6 | $28.6 |
| 8 | Insidious | $5.3 | $44.1 |
| 9 | Hanna | $5.2 | $31.7 |
| 10 | Source Code | $5.0 | $44.6 |