娱乐英语新闻:"Ted", "Magic Mike" lead North America box office

LOS ANGELES, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Four newcomers, Universal's "Ted," Warner Bros.' "Magic Mike," Lionsgate's "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection" and "People Like Us" from Disney, entered the busy pre-July 4 weekend.

"Ted" and "Magic Mike" successfully beat Pixar's "Brave" to lead the North America box office.

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane's "Ted" opened with a massive 54.1 million U.S. dollars at the domestic box office, taking the crown and setting a new record for an original R-rated comedy, according to studios' estimate by Hollywood.com.

The fantasy debuted Friday to 3,239 theaters in North America with much-better-than-expected 21 million dollars.

"Ted", starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, tells of a story of a young boy named John Bennett wanted nothing more than for his beloved teddy bear Ted to come to life. Incredibly, that wish was granted.

Hollywood reviews say that "Ted is an exceedingly pleasant viewing experience." The film received an A- score on CinemaScore.

Another R-rated film "Magic Mike" followed "Ted" with 39.1 million dollars to take the second spot at North America box office. The film also had a tremendous and surprising Friday debut with 19.4 million dollars.

Much like the "Sex and the City" films, Steven Soderbergh directs from a script by Reid Carolin, whose script is inspired by Channing Tatum's work as a sripper before he made it in Hollywood.

Pixar and Disney's 13th consecutive number one debut "Brave" was placed third in the tough week with 34 million dollars, a 49 percent drop from the previous week. However, the epic animation still has a solid performance. It hit the bullseye on the 100-million-dollar target in North America on Friday after just eight days of release and has a 10-day total of an estimated 131.7 million dollars.

The fourth was "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection" opened with 26.3 million dollars from 2,161 theaters in North America. The comedy stars Tyler Perry playing a total of three characters in the film. The Perry's first summer release debuted on Friday with about 10.4 million dollars.

Paramount and Dreamworks' "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" was the fifth with 11.8 million dollars. The family-friendly animation entered its fourth weekend with a total of around 180 million in North America.

With huge competition between four newcomers, the week's revenues saw a nearly 20-percent rise compared with the same period a year ago when "Transformers" 3D led the weekend.

The coming week is expected to see a more fierce competition since another three newcomers enter the market with Sony's long-awaited "The Amazing Spiderman," Paramount's "Katy Perry" and Universal's "Savages."

Rounding up top 10 movies at the North America box office at the weekend are: "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" (6 million dollars), "Prometheus" (4.9 million dollars), "Moonrise Kingdom" (4.87 million dollars), "Snow White and the Huntsman" (4.4 million dollars) and "People Like Us" (4.3 million dollars).