Weekend Box Office: Pixar hands Lincoln his greatest defeat since Chickamauga
Despite more measured praise from critics than usual—though certainly not the relative drubbing that greeted Cars 2 last year—Brave continued Pixar’s 17-year box office hot streak with its 13th straight #1 opener. At this point, the Pixar brand has become the most reliable in Hollywood: At $66.7 million, Brave debuted just over half a million dollars higher than Cars 2, which will nonetheless do little to stop the ongoing narrative about the degree to which it was bolstered (or limited) by the gender divide. (“Girls kick butt!” is the official quote out of Disney, and The Hunger Games and Snow White And The Huntsman make it an official trend.) Meanwhile, the absence of girl power must have torpedoed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter—either that or the pre-release buzz about the historical adventure’s lack of verisimilitude did it in. Whatever the case, the minor literary hit didn’t carry over to the big screen, earning a paltry $16.5 million and suggesting that any future profiles of great American leaders will need to be dumbed-down a lot more. We’re not paying 10 bucks for a history lesson, Professor Bekmambetov!