Hot Friday: 'Think Like A Man' Surprising #1 And 'The Lucky One' Overperforming #2 To Knock Off 'Hunger Games': 'Chimpanzee' #4

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM, 2ND UPDATE: I'm on vacation but the North American box office doesn't stop especially not with 2012 grosses staying strong. Big online ticket seller Fandango called this contest early when it reported that sleeper Think Like A Man based on the bestselling book by TV/radio comedian Steve Harvey was its top-selling movie ' representing a healthy 42% of Thursday's sales. This Screen Gems/Sony Pictures' urban comedy aimed squarely at African-Americans ages 13 to 49 is playing in only 2,017 locations. But it's looking like $12M for today and an unexpectedly large $30M for the weekend with an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences ('A+' Males, 'A' Females, 'A+' under age 25, 'A' every other category). 'Think Like A Man is off to an excellent start. At this time it looks very similar to Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?' a rival studio exec told me today. That's far more than the $17M which Sony was predicting. 'The movie had a negative cost between $12M-$13M so we're thrilled,' a Sony exec emails me. 'Any weekend where you make back the negative cost in the first weekend is a good weekend in our books.'

Warner Bros' romantic drama from Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One starring Zac Efron, is looking like $9.0M today to overperform for $25M weekend playing in 3,115 theaters. It received a 'B+' CinemaScore from audiences.

Both films right now are ahead of Lionsgate's four-weekends-in-a-row winner The Hunger Games which is holding in 3,732 locations its fifth weekend for #3. Going into this weekend, the mega-blockbuster racked up a new international cume of $202.3M and domestic cume of $342.3M for an estimated worldwide cume of $544.7M. It should end up nearing $575M through Sunday. This first installment of Suzanne Collins' book/film trilogy will break into the Top 20 domestic grossing films of all time this weekend (ahead of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers).

And nice matinee numbers came in for DisneyNature's simian documentary Chimpanzee which received an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences. It's looking like $10.5M for the weekend from 1,563 plays. (Who can resist that cute ape face?) That beats last year's African Cats which opened at $6M and made $15.4M, while Oceans in 2010 opened with $6M and went on to $19.4M.

Here's the Top 10 based on Friday's grosses:

1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $12.0M, Weekend $30.0M

2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) NEW [3,155 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.0M, Weekend $25M

3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 5 [3,752 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.8M, Weekend $13.1M, Cume $355.6M

4. Chimpanzee (DisneyNature) NEW [1,563 Theaters]
Friday $3.4M, Weekend $10.5M

5. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 2 [3,482 Theater] PG
Friday $2.4M (-56%), Weekend $8.4M, Cume $28.5M

6. The Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,811 Theaters] R
Friday $2.3M (-56%), Weekend $7.4M, Cume $26.5M

7. American Reunion (Universal) Week 3 [3,033 Theaters] R
Friday $1.6M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $48.2M

8. Titanic 3D (Paramount/Fox) Week 3 [2,515 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.3M, Weekend $4.8M, Cume $52.6M

9. 21 Jump Street (Sony) Week 6 [2,427 Theaters] R
Friday $1.2M, Weekend $4.4M, Cume $126.8M

10. Mirror Mirror (Relativity) Week 4 [2,938 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.0M, Weekend $3.5M, Cume $54.0M

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