Universal delivered the biggest domestic weekend of 2011 so far as Fast Five shredded the competition to open top on an estimated $83.6m.

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson star in the heist film with cars and their combined talents gave Hollywood an early start to the summer, climbing 52% on the same weekend last year as Paramount prepares to launch Thor next weekend.

Rio followed in a distant second place through Fox and crossed $100m in the third weekend as $14.4m raised the running total to $103.6m.

The other new openers delivered lacklustre results as Buena Vista’s Prom took fifth place on $5m and TWC’s Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs Evil ranked sixth on $4.4m.

Comic book adaptation Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night starring Brandon Routh opened in 16th place through Omnilab / Freestyle Releasing on $885,000 from 875. Cave Of Forgotten Dreams opened through IFC on $127,000 from five.

Next weekend sees the arrival of Marvel Studios’ Thor through Paramount, alongside Warner Bros’ rom-com Something Borrowed and the comedy Jumping The Broom through TriStar. Summit Entertainment opens The Beaver in limited release.

Estimated Top 10 North America Apr 29-May 1, 2010
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) Fast Five (Universal) UPI $83.6m –
2 (1) Rio (Fox) Fox Int’l $14.4m $103.6m
3 (2) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (Lionsgate) Lionsgate $10.1m $41.1m
4 (3) Water For Elephants (Fox) Fox Int’l $9.1m $32.3m
5 (-) Prom (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $5m –
6 (-) Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs Evil (TWC) $4.4m –
7 (7) Soul Surfer (TriStar/FilmDistrict) QED Int’l $3.3m $33.8m
8 (9) Insidious (FilmDistrict) IM Global $2.7m $48.3m
9 (4) Hop (Universal) UPI $2.6m $105.3m
10 (10) Source Code (Summit) Summit Int’l $2.5m $48.9m

Topics