Easter moviegoers flock to bird cartoon 'Rio'

The Brazilian bird adventure Rio led the Easter box office in North America for a second weekend, fending off the debuts of Tyler Perry's latest Madea comedy and Reese Witherspoon's romantic outing with Robert Pattinson.

According to studio estimates issued Sunday, Rio sold an estimated $26.8 million worth of tickets across the United States and Canada during the three days beginning April 22. After 10 days, the animated hit has earned $81.3 million.

Madea's Big Happy Family opened close behind with $25.8 million, in line with expectations but falling short of actor/directorwriter Perry's previous films about the brassy black woman.

Madea Goes to Jail opened to $41 million in 2009, and Madea's Family Reunion to $30 million in 2006.

Water for Elephants came in at No 3 with $17.5 million, also in line with expectations. The period drama, based on Sara Gruen's best-selling book, stars Witherspoon as a Depression-era circus performer and Twilight hunk Pattinson as her forbidden lover.

The Easter Bunny live-action/animated hybrid Hop slipped one place to No. 4 with $12.5 million in its fourth weekend; its total rose to $100.5 million.

The horror sequel Scream 4 tumbled three to No. 5 with $7.2 million in its second weekend; the 10-day tally rose to $31.2 million -- still short of the opening-weekend tallies of either Scream 3 or Scream 2.

Rio was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and Water for Elephants by Fox Searchlight. Both are units of News Corp. Madea's Big Happy Family was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Hop was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp-controlled NBC Universal. Scream 4 was released by Dimension Films, a unit of the closely held Weinstein Co.