Box Office: 'Cars 2' finishes first with $68M!

The weekend at the movies belonged to the new releases, because "Cars 2" and "Bad Teacher" took over the North American box office, leaving their competition in the dust. Pixar's sequel to "Cars," for instance, grabbed a strong $68 million. 

That's right! "Cars 2" earned $8 million more than its predecessor, which comes as quite a surprise, considering the buzz around this film was clearly lower than that for, let's say, "Toy Story 3." Even critics didn't welcome "Cars 2" as warmly as they usually do a Pixar flick.

At No. 2, Cameron Diaz's comedy "Bad Teacher" bagged a strong $31 million from showings at 3,049 sites. In the film, Diaz plays a rough teacher shaking things up at a school. Yes, those two films alone brought in $100 million this weekend.

Meanwhile, "Green Lantern" took a pretty big hit, dropping to No. 3 with a weekend gross of only $18.3 million. The Ryan Reynolds sci-fi action flick lifted its total to $89.3 million, which is still pretty far away from the $200 million the film cost to develop.

"Super 8" slipped to fourth place, pulling $12.1 million for a cume of $95.1 million, while "Mr. Popper's Penguins" landed at No. 5 with $10.3 million for a domestic total of $39.4 million. "X-Men: First Class" followed at No. 6 with $6.6 million ($132.8 million total).

Also, "The Hangover Part II" brought its cumulative gross to $243.9 million via earnings of $5.8 million at No. 7. Following at No. 8 with $5.3 million was "Bridesmaids," which reached a domestic total of $146.67 million. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" took home $4.7 million.

Finally, Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" still did very well despite a little loss. The film picked up $4.7 million at No. 10, bringing its cume to $28.5 million. Remember it's only playing at 951 sites!

Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)