'Madagascar' madness: No. 1 at the box office

In Hollywood, as a rule of thumb, nothing beats cute animals. This weekend was no different.

The latest DreamWorks animation fest, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," surpassed expectations, bringing in $63.5 million in its opening weekend. That put it way ahead of any competition and landed the "Madagascar" sequel the third-biggest opening weekend ever for a DreamWorks picture, behind "Shrek 2" and "Shrek the Third."

"The movie really exceeded all of our expectations and all the box office predictors," said Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DreamWorks. She chalked up the resounding reception -- crystal-ball gazers had expected slightly less than $60 million -- to the fact that, after the elections and all the negative financial news, "the country was ready for a comedy."

Speaking of comedy, Universal's "Role Models," starring Paul Rudd, netted second place, bringing in $19.3 million at the box office. That was perhaps the weekend's biggest surprise, as it nearly doubled prognostications. Disney's "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" stayed strong in its third weekend, landing enough teeny-boppers to add $9.3 million to its total haul, now standing at $75.7 million, according to data tracker Media by Numbers.

Fourth place for the weekend belonged to the Clint Eastwood Oscar contender "Changeling." In its second week of wide release (although third week overall), it dropped only 22% at the gate, totaling $7.3 million.

Some of the strength at the top of the list came, perhaps, from an unexpectedly weak showing from the MGM debut, "Soul Men," starring the late Bernie Mac. Forecast to bring in as much as $10 million or $11 million, it disappointed, drawing only $4.2 million and coming in at the No. 6 spot, behind the Weinstein Co.'s Seth Rogen vehicle, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," at $6.5 million.

Next week's big U.S. release, James Bond's return in "Quantum of Solace," is expected to start strong. In international release, where it showed in 60 countries, it brought in $106.5 million, the 11th largest international weekend of all time.

Bensinger is a Times staff writer.

ken.bensinger@latimes.com