Weekend Box Office–Battle LA Tops & Mars Flops

Disney invested a lot of money into Mars Needs Moms, but are not seeing a very good return on it.

Overall box office numbers were down about 13% but that is no excuse for the poor numbers that Disney's latest effort, Mars Needs Moms, brought in.  It is a little more inventive than previous Disney films using motion capture technology in the same way that Rango did.  The film only made $6.8 million this weekend when it opened, only a fraction of the $150 million budget.

Disney exec's said that they did not expect much out of the movie and doubted it would even make near $10 million.  Turns out they were correct.  It didn't help that they were going up against Rango which has been owning the box office.  That movie made another $21 million this weekend getting it's total so far up to $68 million.  As a matter of fact the only one praising Mars Needs Moms is a very bitter Disney exec who will remain nameless.

The big winner this weekend was Battle: Los Angeles, which took in $36 million in it's opening weekend and debuted at number one, dethroning Rango from the number one spot.  Reviews for the film were pretty good over all as well, most gave the film a high B.  Red Riding Hood, the horror take on the the children's classic, came in at number 3 making $14 million.