Pixar Does It Again! 'Brave' Opens Big #1 With $25M Friday And $70M Weekend; 'Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Gets Lost

FRIDAY 11 PM: My sources tell me that Pixar's heroine-in-the-highlands Brave will open to around $70M this weekend and $25M for today. So it'll be an easy #1 this weekend ' incredibly, Pixar's 13th straight first place finish. That's just about where DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted opened two weeks ago for distributor Paramount ($60.3M). Looks like concerns that Brave would only appeal to girls and their mothers may have been overplayed. Then again, every Pixar 3D movie has opened to at least $60M. Plus, this is a giant release into 4,164 theaters, 2,790 of which are 3D shows. This is the first anti-princess toon bringing Disney into the 21st Century and audiences responded with CinemaScores of straight 'A's.

Also just as interesting is the untested mash-up genre. ButtTwentieth Century Fox's R-rated Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (in 3,106 theaters) only came in 3rd behind DreamWorks Animation's holdover toon Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. My sources keep lowering their opening weekend estimates: now $17.5M and possibly under for the weekend after a flat $6.5M debut. That's about where tracking was showing and Fox was dreading for the 3D horror thriller. Today's number includes $701,261 in midnight screenings from 1,168 locations. But don't expect much imrovement: audieces gave the pic only a 'C+' CinemaScore which doesn't bode well for word of mouth.

This Lincoln: Vampire Hunter high-concept/no-stars pic is doing only slightly better than the openings of Tom Cruise's PG-13 Rock Of Ages and Adam Sandler's R-rated That's My Boy which both flopped last weekend. Remember that the studio bought the mash-up package for $69M with most elements attached like producer Tim Burton and director Timur Bekmambetov who used their own money to buy scripter Seth Grahame-Smith's bestselling book. (Only Hollywood would defile the reputation of one of America's greatest Presidents') Fox's only reticence was the first dollar gross request which initially was just north of 25%. The final deal was rich. But Fox, led by production president Emma Watts, thought it had a major tentpole teed up. That's probaby no longer the case.

Focus Features' offbeat Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World (in only 1,618 theaters) from writer-director Loraine Scafaria starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley finished 10th today. It posted $1.2M Friday and maybe a $4.5M weekend opening which is just under the low end of its box office projections.

Top Ten shortly'

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.