Cannibalization

So maybe Fox miscalculated.

The Croods managed $3.02 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $177.02 million (worldwide, it's made an astonishing $550.3 million), but, with 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios' Epic coming out, it's going to be tough reaching $200 million. ...

DreamWorks Animation's cave family did more than accumulate another three million bucks. It climbed back into the fifth position inside the Top Ten, and it beat fourth place Pain and Gain on both Saturday and Sunday.

Not bad for a feature that's been out for two months ...

Chris Sanders now has two back-to-back hits at DWA. And story director Ed Gombert has smashes in two different centuries for two different studios. (Ed's other success as story director was Disney's Aladdin. The Croods marks Ed's second go 'round. Ed likes to space his story director assignments out a wee bit ...)

The odds are good that The Croods will tumble out of the top of the movie hit parade when Epic debuts on May 24th. I doubt that Fox expected The Croods to stay viable for so long, and planned its release slate accordingly. Releasing Epic in late May probably seemed a wise move back at the front of the year. Now, of course, the Blue Sky Studio movie will snip off some of The Croods money tail.

But what's a hungry conglomerate to do? It's got pictures to release and only so many weekends on which it can catapult its next cartoon to big box office. And Diz Co. unleashes Monsters University on June 21st. (Eek!)