Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Paramount/DreamWorks Animation · PG · 4,056 theaters · NEW
The state of the box office has not been particularly strong for a few weeks now, a fact that's no doubt related to the national financial downturn and people feeling entertained enough by sitting at home and watching Tina Fey on the HDTV sets they probably shouldn't have splurged on and will be paying off for the next five years. No, I'm not digressing. What I'm trying to say is that this is the kind of big animated sequel that should attract audiences to the multiplex and goose grosses across the board. The first Madagascar flick opened with $47.2 mil in May 2005, en route to a huge $193.6 mil domestic sum. You can expect a slightly better bow this time around, considering the rise in ticket prices and the fact that kids, well, they rule, in case the recent successes of Beverly Hills Chihuahua and HSM3 didn't remind you. Madagascar 2's debut figure should be the biggest since The Dark Knight's record-breaking opening in July, a fitting start to the movies' end-of-the-year money dash.
Weekend prediction: $52 million