And the Box Office Champion this week is...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – OMG! OMG!
Sixteen-year-old actress Miley Cyrus became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood on Sunday as her first nonconcert movie topped the North American box office, earning twice as much as Disney had forecast.
Walt Disney Co's "Hannah Montana: The Movie" sold $34 million worth of tickets at the three-day Easter weekend, as fans of the perky starlet rushed to see the first big-screen adaptation of her hit Disney Channel TV series.
Cyrus returned the favor, turning up with her father and co-star, Billy Ray Cyrus, at theaters in Utah and Tennessee and blogging about her wild weekend on Twitter.
"omgomg! my fans rock! the movie is doing great you guys! omg AND its all cause of you!!!! I LOVE U ALL! IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT YET CHECK IT!," she wrote, using the "omg" acronym as shorthand for "Oh, my God."
As in her TV show, Cyrus plays a regular schoolgirl by day and a pop star by night. But her father (Billy Ray Cyrus) decides she needs to get back to her small-town roots, so takes her on a surprise trip to her old Tennessee home where love and other complications ensue.
Going into the weekend, Disney had hoped "Hannah Montana" would perform in the same range as 2003's "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," a vehicle for Disney Channel star Hilary Duff. "Lizzie" opened to $17.3 million in 2003, and ended its domestic run with $42.7 million.

On Sunday, the studio denied that it had deliberately set a low target. "It caught us by surprise. No doubt about it," said Chuck Viane, the studio's president of domestic theatrical distribution. "Outside of Wow! what can you say?"
Exit polling showed that women made up 80 percent of moviegoers, and 60 percent of the audience was aged between two and 17, Viane said.
Cyrus' previous big-screen outing, "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour," opened with $31 million last year, ending up with $65 million to become the biggest concert movie of all time.
Disney will soon begin shooting another Cyrus movie, "The Last Song," Viane said.
Cyrus is now a bigger draw than Oscar-winners like Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster, who each had $13 million openings with their last movies, "Duplicity" and "Nim's Island," respectively.
Last weekend's champion "Fast & Furious" slipped to No. 2 with $28.8 million, taking the 10-day total for Universal Pictures' race-car thriller to $118.0 million. The studio is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc's "Monsters vs. Aliens" was down one at No. 3 with $22.6 million in its third weekend; its total rose to $141 million.
Also new was the dark comedy "Observe and Report," which opened at No. 4 with $11.1 million, falling short of the expectations of its distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures. The Time Warner Inc.-owned studio had hoped for an opening in the $14 million to $15 million range.
The Japanese-inspired fantasy "Dragonball Evolution" opened at No. 7 with $4.7 million, also a little lower than the modest forecasts of its distributor 20th Century Fox. But the News Corp-owned studio said the film is doing better internationally with sales to date of $37 million.

And the Box Office Champion this week is...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Fast & Furious," the fourth film in Universal Pictures' hot-rodding franchise, raced to the top spot at the worldwide box office as movie fans with a need for speed snapped up an estimated $102.6 million worth of tickets, the studio said on Sunday.
In the United States and Canada, the picture earned $72.5 million during its first three days, smashing "Monsters vs. Aliens'" week-old record for the best opening of the year.
The film already has earned more than the previous installment, 2006's "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," which opened with $24 million and ended up making $62.5 million.
While Universal knew the sagging series was destined for a spectacular boost, its forecasts pointed to an opening in the $50 million range. The highly anticipated reunion of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker -- the stars of the 2001 original -- cost about $85 million to make, the studio said.
"We knew there was a great buzz from the get-go," said Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution at the General Electric Co-owned studio. "The marketing plan was spot-on about how exciting this rendition was."
Critics thought the film was a wreck, and Diesel and Walker have hardly lit up the box office in recent years. But forgiving audiences gave "Fast & Furious" the green light in post-screening surveys. Not surprisingly, it skewed toward male youngsters. Hispanics accounted for 46 percent of ticket-buyers, followed by whites with 28 percent.
Internationally, "Fast & Furious" earned $30.1 million from 31 markets, opening at No. 1 in most of them, Universal said. Highlights included Germany with $6.5 million, Mexico with $4 million and Spain with $3.6 million. In Thailand, 65 percent of all moviegoers saw the film, which earned $1.2 million.
The film adds 19 markets next weekend, including Britain, France and Russia.
Diesel, 41, and Walker, 35, resurrect their roles as old foes who team up to confront a common enemy. Along the way, there are car chases, convoy heists and burning gas tankers. They launched the franchise with "The Fast and the Furious," which brought in $40.1 million on its opening weekend. It finished with $144.5 million.
Diesel skipped the first sequel, 2003's "2 Fast 2 Furious," which debuted with $50.5 million and finished with $127.1 million. "Tokyo Drift" featured a new cast, although Diesel set pulses racing with an uncredited cameo at the end.
Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, two other veterans from the first film, round out the cast. "Fast & Furious" was directed by Justin Lin, who also shot "Tokyo Drift."
"Monsters vs. Aliens" slipped to No. 2 with $33.5 million in its second round. It had held the record for best opening of the year, with a $59.3 million start. The total for DreamWorks Animation SKG's cartoon stands at $105.7 million.
At No. 3, "The Haunting in Connecticut" scared up $9.6 million, taking its 10-day haul to $37.2 million.
The Nicolas Cage action movie "Knowing" followed with $8.1 million, for a three-week tally of $58.2 million. The Paul Rudd comedy "I Love You, Man" was No. 5 with $7.9 million, as its three-week score rose to $49.3 million.
The top 10 boasted two other new entries. The teen comedy "Adventureland" underwhelmed at No. 6 with $6 million, in line with low expectations. "Sunshine Cleaning" rose one to No. 10 with $1.9 million in its fourth week. The total for the crime-scene cleanup comedy rose to $4.8 million.
"The Haunting in Connecticut" was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. "Knowing" was released by Summit Entertainment, which is privately held. "I Love You, Man" was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. "Adventureland" was released by Miramax Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co. "Sunshine Cleaning" was released by Overture Films, which is privately held.

And the Box Office Champion this week is...

The analysts and studio executives who are bullish on the prospects for 3-D over the next few years will point to this past weekend as evidence that they're onto something. Monsters Vs. Aliens, the 3-D release by DreamWorks Animation, topped North American box office results with $58.2 million in sales over the weekend. The movie, distributed by Paramount, opened on Friday on over 7,000 screens, with about 2,000 of them equipped for 3-D broadcast. About 56 percent of total ticket sales were for 3-D tickets, which cost $2 to $4 more than regular tickets.

Piper Jaffray analyst James Marsh believes that 3-D ticket sales in theaters will grow to $3.9 billion in 2011?or about a third of all box-office revenues?from a small base last year; 3-D will increase movie attendance by 20 percent to 25 percent, he says. Monsters Vs. Aliens didn't top DreamWorks Animation's last two releases, Kung Fu Panda and a Madagascar sequel, which brought in $60 million and $63 million respectively at the box office during their opening weekends. Still, 3-D tickets were sold out, and according to The Wall Street Journal , 40 percent of those who bought 2-D tickets said in exit polls that they would have preferred to buy 3-D tickets. In the movie, a meteor turns some humans into monsters who then have to protect the human world from an alien attack.

While 3-D looks has gotten off to a strong start?there have been a smattering of releases until now but studios are ramping up their 3-D production this year?many theater chains have yet to install the technology in their theaters; fewer than 5 percent are equipped with 3-D systems, and the poor economy may further slow that adoption. The next slate of 3-D releases?Disney's Up and Fox's Avatar?will hit theaters over the next few months.