RAUNCH AND SEX RULE AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

Records of sorts were set at the box office last weekend. The Los Angeles Times discovered that for the first time in history two R-rated movies earned more than $21 million apiece. In fact, Ted, with $54.4 million, and Magic Mike, with $39.1 million, according to the final official tally, did it with millions to spare. For Ted, it was the most ever earned by an R-rated comedy that wasn’t a sequel. For Magic Mike, it virtually tied the best opening of Steven Soderbergh’s illustrious career, earning just $26,000 less than his Ocean’s Twelve in 2004. Coming in third was the second week of Disney/Pixar’s Brave, which fell 49 percent to take in $34.1 million and bring its ten-day gross to $131.77 million. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection bucked all that impressive competition to debut with a solid $25.4 million. Unfortunately Disney’s People Like Us flopped in its first outing, generating just $4.3 million in ticket sales and failing even to make it into the top ten. Overall, the box office was up 2.7 percent above the comparable weekend a year ago when Paramount’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon debuted with $97.9 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Ted, Universal, $54,415,205, (New); 2. Magic Mike, Warner Bros., $39,127,170, (New); 3. Brave, Disney, $34,094,643, 2 Wks. ($131,768,334); 4. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, Lionsgate, $25,390,575, (New); 5. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $11,840,276, 4 Wks. ($180,036,798); 6. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 20th Century Fox, $6,009,612, 2 Wks. ($29,043,805); 7. Moonrise Kingdom, Focus Features, $4,926,837, 6 Wks. ($18,465,954); 8. Prometheus, 20th Century Fox, $4,921,254, 4 Wks. ($118,258,102); 9. Snow White and The Huntsman, Universal, $4,498,725, 5 Wks. ($145,684,645); 10. The Avengers, Disney, $4,421,671, 9 Wks. ($606,504,744).