RANGO tops the weekend box office! Congratulations!

“Boosted by a great Saturday, Paramount’s quirky toon Rango opened to an estimated $38 million from 3,917 theaters to score the top opening of the year for a non-holiday weekend,” writes Pamela McLintock of the Hollywood Reporter. Brandon Gray of BoxOfficeMojo notes that Rango approximately doubled the opening weekend gross of Johnny’s previous foray into animation, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride ($19.1 million). Since Rango was filmed in 2D — a rarity for family features now — that box office total is not inflated by 3D ticket prices, either. “To a more modest degree, director Gore Verbinski and Depp may have done for animated Westerns what they did for pirate movies with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise,” Gray writes. “Bolstered by a paucity of family fare, Rango stood out with its distinctive look and sensibility, and the Depp branding helped make its quirks a selling point.”

In addition to its domestic box office, Rango grossed more than $16 million in overseas markets this weekend. The Hollywood Reporter notes, “With its old west theme, Rango played incredibly well in Hispanic markets like Mexico and Argentina, as well as in the Southwest and Western United States. [. . .] Rango easily posted the best debut of an otherwise lackluster year.”

The Zone thanks Emma, SnoopyDances, and Theresa for box-office updates; you can read more about Rango on the Zone’s News & Views forum. Zoners share their personal reviews of the film, and we share the reviews of critics, on our Porch General Discussion forum.

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