Friday Box Office Estimates: As expected, "Toy Story 3" Huge while "Jonah Hex" DOA

Following last weekend's wake-up call from Sony's "The Karate Kid", the North American box office showed a lot of life on Friday thanks to the arrival of Pixar/Disney's "Toy Story 3", which collected an estimated $40 million on its opening day. The second sequel to the 1995 hit that gave birth to the computer-animated genre benefitted from a number of factors: name recognition, premium-priced 3D and IMAX ticket, a huge screen count that went over 4,000 screens and an overwhelming amout of positive reviews from critcs. Strong word-of-mouth from moviegoers should take over from here. Saturday and Sunday matinees should be huge thanks to families, while the evening showings should also do terrific since Pixar movies manage to please every demographic. Look for Buzz and Woody to finish with a terrific $125-130 million for its first three days, with much more to come.

Landing with a thud that echoed across the film world was Warner's troubled Western "Jonah Hex" with a dire $2 million from 2,825 screens. The film marks the third underperformer from the studio in the past two months following "Sex and the City 2" (released via their New Line division) and "Splice". The reported $65 million adaptation of the little-known DC comic went through a pair of directors and an extensive period of reshoots en route to its non-opening. It wouldn't surprise me if Warner Brothers has candles lit around a poster for "Inception" in the hopes it saves the studio's summer. Watch for the 'hex'ed "Jonah" to finish under $6 million for the weekend.

Last week's champ, "The Karate Kid" hauled in an estimated $8.6 million on its second Friday and is looking at a possible $27 million weekend haul. Fox's "The A-Team" took in an estimated $4 million yesterday and is looking at roughly $12-14 million for its second weekend in the market, while Dreamworks' "Shrek Forever After" took roughly $2.5 million in its fifth weekend for a possible $9 million weekend.

Check back tomorrow for weekend estimates.