Films geared at younger audiences and families are so far proving to be the bright spots for 2013’s box office so far. After Oz opened to a robust $79 million two weekends ago, another family film has come in and already become a success. Meanwhile, action movies have largely been ignored….until this weekend. The combination propelled this weekend to the crown for highest overall grossing weekend of the year so far.

The Croods

The Croods opened to a strong $44.7 million this weekend, which was a bit above expectations. As the first big animated movie aimed right at kids in a long while, this one was primed to breakout. With absolutely no family or kid movies coming out in the near future, The Croods should be able to roll right through April. Its Friday-to-Saturday increase was enormous (63%), but kiddie movies usually do their best business on Saturday. Even still, that bodes well. I think The Croods could end up as a $150 million dollar movie.

But more surprising than our number one picture is the runner up, Olympus Has Fallen, which broke out this weekend with a very good $30.5 million. That’s more than double what Red Dawn managed. I guess people just wanted to see Gerard Butler back in action, plus there was a really strong cast, and the concept isn’t bad either. I don’t expect good legs, but even still, if this one could end up with around $80 million, it’s still a big success. Then again…. it’s excessively patriotic, so its overseas prospects are limited. We’ll have to see.

Two-time champ Oz: The Great and Powerful fell 47% to $22 million. The legs for Oz haven’t been great, but they haven’t been bad either. Still, a gross of $178 million is strong and it still figures to end up around $220 million or so. Last weekend’s surprise runner up, The Call, fell a predictable 49%, though I was honestly expecting something closer to 60%. Anyway, the Halle Berry thriller pulled in $8.7 million, which is about what I expected in its opening weekend. The total stands at $30.9 million, way above its budget of $13 million.

Admission flopped with a $6.5 million opening. Granted (or is it “grant it?” I’ve never gotten a definitive answer on that), the budget is only $13 million, so at least it won’t lose too much money. Expanding into nationwide release after an explosive debut in limited release, Spring Breakers made an okay $5 million. The good-girls-gone-bad flick only had a budget of $2 million, so even if it never really finds much traction in the weeks to come, it’s already done just fine.

Seventh goes to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, as the bad news gets worse. It fell 58% to $4.3 million, lifting the weak total to $17.4 million, or, you know, less than what Bruce Almighty made in its opening day. Anyway, Jack the Giant Slayer was down 53% to just under $3 million, brings its gross to $59 million. Fortunately for Warner Bros., it’s doing pretty well overseas, but recouping that huge budget is simply not happening.

Identity Thief finished in ninth and dropped to 42%, grossing $2.5 million. $128 million in the bank for a film that only cost $35 million is very impressive. Finally, rounding out the top is Snitch, which was down 45%. After pulling in $1.9 million this weekend, the total stands at $40.3 million. Not too shabby.

Well, all right, things are finally picking up at the box office. The Croods and Olympus Has Fallen led us to a very good weekend. Unfortunately, last year a little movie called The Hunger Games opened and by itself made more than this weekend’s entire top 12 combined. But, to look at the glass half full, next weekend looks pretty strong too, so the recent streak for 2013 should continue.

Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor: I feel even worse about the prospects for this one than I did when I wrote my March preview. I have not seen or heard one shred of advertising for this movie. Then again, I’d never even heard of the first Madea movie before it shockingly opened at number one eight years ago. Still, I’m going to predict just $10 million here.

The Host: Sigh….this is a hard one. It’s got that Meyer brand name and it’s playing up all the romance/love triangle stuff, which the Twilight crowd should eat up. Plus, it, well, just plain looks like a better movie than any of the Twilight flicks. Not saying it necessarily looks good, but it’s certainly an improvement. It shocks me that BoxOffice.com is tracking Confessions of a Marriage Counselor to open higher than The Host. I just cannot see that happening. I think The Host will open around $30 million.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation: This is probably the first movie all year I could actually say that I’m excited to see. It looks better than the first, though that one wasn’t particularly successful or well-received. Yeah, it did well, but not quite well enough. But throwing in Bruce Willis and The Rock should certainly help. G.I. Joe opens on Thursday, so that it will dilute its three-day weekend somewhat. In light of that, I think its three-day gross will be somewhere around $40 million. See ya next week, everybody.