‘Snow White and the Hunstman’ Dominates the Box Office

Laremy Legel June 3, 2012

Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman

It was a big weekend for Kristen Stewart fans, as she became the first member of the “Twilight” trio to star in a film that opened at the top of the charts (no, we’re not counting “Valentine’s Day,” sorry Taylor Lautner). Impressively enough, it was also Charlize Theron’s second largest debut, trailing only “Hancock” in box office power. Though “Snow White and the Huntsman” cost a reported $170m to make, it should be able to pull in decent international earnings, so any sort of holdover will have Universal breathing a sigh of relief.

The big losers of the weekend were “Battleship” and “Chernobyl Diaries,” each falling over 55 percent, neither sustaining any semblance of momentum . Oddly enough, slots four through eight on the charts were separated by less than a million dollars, meaning a couple hundred thousand tickets was the difference between eighth and fourth place. Clearly, “Battleship”‘s $200m production budget makes earning a theatrical profit near impossible, we can all rest easy knowing we’ve dodged the sequel bullet.

In other news, and after a streak of ten straight weekends, “The Hunger Games” finally fell out of the box office top ten. The film grossed over $650m worldwide, earning itself a #1 ranking on the “action heroine” movie charts. Kudos must also be handed out to “Prometheus,” a film that socked away $35m in international dollars on its opening weekend, out dueling “Snow White” head-to-head in The U.K., boding extremely well for its June 8, 2012 release date domestically.

While we’re handing out accolades, a huge “whoo hoo!” must be given to “The Avengers”. The film passed “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ for the third highest-grossing film of all time, a better result than anyone at Disney would have dared to hope for given the level of competition the summer months generally hold. Chris Hemsworth also accomplished the rare “appearing in two films in the top three” trick as “Avengers” held strong while “Snow White and the Huntsman” triumphed.

Here are the estimated totals for the top ten over the three-day weekend, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. “Snow White and the Huntsman” – $56.3m (our review)
2. “Men in Black 3″ – $29.3m (our review)
3. “Marvel’s The Avengers” – $20.3m (our review)
4. “Battleship” – $4.8m (our review)
5. “The Dictator” – $4.7m
6. “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” – $4.6m (our review)
7. “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” – $4.4m
8. “Dark Shadows” – $3.9m (our review)
9. “Chernobyl Diaries” – $3.0m our review
10. “For Greater Glory” – $1.8m