MUMBAI:20th Century Fox’s Rio turned out to be the year’s first robust box-office hit over the weekend as the film opened in 11,612 screens in 72 markets and grossed an estimated $55 million.

“This is a fantastic start for a new franchise,” declared Fox International co-presidents Paul Hanneman and Tomas Jegeus. “With consistently stellar reviews and excellent world-of-mouth around the world…we are well established to take advantage of the school holidays, which begin in the coming weeks,” they added. 

Rio opened at No. 1 in nearly every market it played and scored particularly well in Brazil, where the weekend action came to $8.3 million from 1,013 locations, the market’s biggest animation opening weekend of all time.

The film’s Russian bow generated $10.4 million from 1,297 screens. Mexico provided $5.3 million from 1,624 sites, Germany registered $3.4 million from 920 venues while. The film is likely to open in France, Belgium and Italy US and Canada this week.

No. 2 on the weekend was Warner’s Sucker Punch that garnered $8.9 million from 4,550 screens in 50 markets, pushing the foreign gross total of the film to $32.7 million.

Third on the weekend was Sony’s Just Go With It, which delivered $7.9 million from 2,610 screens in 53 markets for a foreign gross total to date of $88.3 million. The comedy drew $1.7 million in its second Australia round at 310 sites and collected $5 million totally. The film is the biggest-grossing Sandler title to date in Brazil and Russia.

The weekend’s No. 4 title, Universal’s Hop grossed $5.9 million at 2,927 venues in 32 territories bringing its overseas total to $15.1 million while at No. 5 was Summit Entertainment’s Source Code that generated about $10.8 million so far on the foreign circuit thanks to a $3.2 million second weekend from some 20 overseas markets.