Snow White And the Huntsman topped the box office chart over the weekend and captured an estimated $56.2 million. That’s a good number for a non-sequel, and the launch is much better than the last Snow White movie Mirror Mirror - which opened to $18 million and topped out at $62 million ($160 million globally). The cast includes the winning trifecta of Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, who all have solid fan-bases due to their past cinematic accomplishments.

Snow White And The Huntsman has had solid reviews (read ours) and its visuals have been compared to the Lord of The Rings films, and it should be noted that the opening of Snow White is ahead of The Fellowship of the Ring’s $47 million start, and just behind the $62 million start of The Two Towers. Those films went on to gross $315 million and $342 million respectively, although Snow White won’t come near these numbers. The film has grossed $39 million on foreign screens.

Men In Black 3 took a 46% hit from last weekend’s launch. The Will Smith starrer banked another $29.3 million and raised its cumulative gross to $112 million. It’s a solid number, but it must be remembered that the film cost somewhere in the region of $225-300 million (it's grossed over $386 million worldwide). However, the sci-fi comedy looks set to be the lowest grossing instalment in the fifteen year-old franchise at the domestic box office.

The Avengers scored a further $20 million, raising its total to a mighty $552 million. The film is now the third highest grossing film of all-time behind Titanic ($658 million) and Avatar ($760 million), but it won’t trouble those films on the chart as it is beginning to lose forward momentum. The Marvel movie has now banked over $1.3 billion globally, a figure that also puts it third on the all-time worldwide chart.

Battleship grossed $4.8 million over the weekend, a number which raises its domestic total to $55 million. The costly film is inching towards $300 million globally, a number which puts it ahead of Taylor Kitsch’s other underperformer John Carter, although Battleship looks like it might not beat Carter’s $72 million domestic cume.

The Dictator laughed up an additional $4.7 million and raised its total gross to $50 million. The Sacha Baron Cohencomedy has accumulated more than $100 million globally.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel brought in $4.6 million for a $25 million total gross. That gives it over $100 million at the worldwide box office.

What to Expect When You're Expecting should deliver $4.4 million worth of green, for a $30 million total. The comedy is beginning to stabilize, but it won’t get near $50 million.

Dark Shadows sunk its teeth into another $3.8 million, a number which brought its total gross to $70 million. It’s a solid number for the film that is closing in on $200 million worldwide.

Horror flick Chernobyl Diaries banked a smidgen over $3 million for a $14 million total.

The top ten was rounded out by For Greater Glory. The Andy Garcia drama grossed $1.8 million from 757 screens.

On the international front, Prometheus grossed $35 million ahead of its US launch later this week.

That's it for now. See you at the movies.

Source: Box Office Mojo