Box Office: "Brave" Easily Beats Out the Competition

With one animated film replacing another, "Brave" easily shot atop the box office over the movie-going weekend of June 22-24, 2012.

In what's their thirteenth straight first place release, the Pixar/Disney created action/adventure tale about Princess Merida churned out a $24.5 million opening day followed up with $23.6 million on Saturday which places debut weekend estimates at a respectable $66.5 million.

Continuing forth with its solid performance while being bumped to the runner-up ranking is last weekend's top earner "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted", as DreamWorks Animation's family friendly adventure took in another $7 million on Friday while pacing towards a projected third weekend pull of $19.2 million.

Rounding out the top five at the box office in estimated totals are the newly released and under-performing Benjamin Walker/ Mary Elizabeth Winstead/ Dominic Cooper starring horror/fantasy flick "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" ($16.7 million), followed by Ridley Scott's Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender spearheaded Sci-Fi caper "Prometheus" ($12.3 million) and the Tom Cruise/Julianne Hough fronted musical disappointment "Rock of Ages" ($7.9 million).

On a sidenote, this weekend's other big name boasting newcomer "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World" (starring Keira Knightley and Steve Carell) landed in 10th place with an anticipated total of $3.8 million - with the numbers coming as the Lorene Scafaria directed movie is only being shown in 1,618 theaters.