Weekend Box-Office: March 9-11, 2012

Sorry Mr. Carter, the Lorax still has it!

An orange creature held more appeal than a red planet this weekend as Dr. Seuss’ tree-lover THE LORAX took the top prize with $39.1 million, holding Disney’s colossal sci-fi epic JOHN CARTER in second with $30.6M (in almost the same number of theaters as the mustachioed winner). THE LORAX dropped around 45% since last week and has brought in $121M in its first ten days of release.

There will undoubtedly be plenty of theories as to why the Mars-based JOHN CARTER didn’t perform better (even with 3D and IMAX premium prices), and although the movie is reportedly doing well so far overseas, a $30M domestic opening on a $250+M production budget is obviously not the success story Disney was looking for. Between this and last year’s flop MARS NEEDS MOMS (also released by Disney on this same weekend in 2011, coincidentally), it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to visit our angry red neighbor…

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on Kitsch, who is also fronting this summer’s huge-budgeted BATTLESHIP and Oliver Stone’s thriller SAVAGES. Still, even if his presence is downplayed in the marketing of those movies, the guy’s come a long way since Renny Harlin’s man-witch flick THE COVENANT.

Last week’s #2 and #3 finishers are still going strong, with the R-rated “found footage” party comedy PROJECT X brews up another $11.5M as ACT OF VALOR guns down another $7M, bringing the Navy SEALs’ total to $56.1M in three weeks.

Meanwhile, crowds continue to show a relative disinterest in Eddie Murphy as his long-delayed attempted-comedy A THOUSAND WORDS (succinctly described by our reviewer Chris B. as “shit, shit, shit”) landed in sixth with just $6.3M, even below the barely advertised low-budget horror-thriller SILENT HOUSE in fourth with $7M. Correct, Eddie Murphy is now less of a star than the non-twin Olsen sister.

With another, more colorful alternative to choose from in THE LORAX, families seem to have abandoned JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, which just clings to the #10 slot. Tyler Perry’s audience has also swiftly ditched him — GOOD DEEDS slips off the chart after just two weeks, so you can probably expect to see him back in drag next time for another inexplicably popular Madea movie. Oscar-winner THE ARTIST only managed to hang around the Top 10 for a single weekend, while the indie ensemble comedy FRIENDS WITH KIDS had a decent $2.1M opening in just 374 theaters.

Next week only has one major new release, the update of the 80s cop show 21 JUMP STREET. Opening in limited release are Will Ferrell’s Spanish comedy experiment CASA DE MI PADRE, the Ed Helms/Jason Segel team-up JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME, the Adrien Brody drama DETACHMENT (from AMERICAN HISTORY X director Tony Kaye) and the latest blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Nic Cage release SEEKING JUSTICE. Why do you think JOHN CARTER didn’t perform better at the box office this weekend? VOTE HERE!