What would Ayn Rand make of the opening weekend of “Atlas Shrugged”? What would John Galt? It grossed $1.6 million for 14th place. Sure, it played in a mere 300 theaters so the game was kind of rigged; but the marketplace is always rigged, and whining about it seems somehow unGaltian. Even if you sort by per-theater-average, “Atlas” only rises to 7th place, behind not only the opening weekends of “Scream 4,” “Rio” and the Italian thriller “Double Hour” (playing in only two theaters), but the second weekend of “Meek's Cutoff.” That last title seems particularly appropriate.

So “Rio” won the weekend: $40 million, first place. That's actually the best opening weekend for the year. Eesh. By this time last year we'd already seen opening weekends of $116 million (“Alice in Wonderland”), $61 million (“Clash of the Titans”), $56 million (“Valentine's Day”), $43 million (“How to Train Your Dragon”) and $41 million (“Shutter Island”). We'll shatter that $40 million in two weeks but it demonstrates just how slow 2011 has been out of the gate.

“Scream 4” came in second with $19 million. “Hop” keeps bouncing, finishing with $11.1 million and third, while “Soul Surfer,” the God-has-a-plan-because-a-shark-bit-off-my-arm movie, dropped only 30%, for $7.4 and fourth. “Hanna,” the movie I saw, and recommend, dropped 40% for $7.1 and fifth.

The other new film, Robert Redford's “The Conspirator,” grossed $3.9 in 707 theaters. Ninth.

“Rio” was also the no. 1 movie in 27 other countries. Here are a few of the countries that didn't succumb to Hollywood this weekend (links lead to trailers):

• France: Titeuf, le film
• Japan: OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
• Netherlands: Gooische vrouwen
• Thailand: King Naresuan: Part Three

My initial intention with the trailers was to show what else was out there, and I assumed, in a grass-is-greener way, that they would be good; but each of these trailers looks horrendous. Which of the four would you sit through? The Thai film looks most Hollywoody, the Japanese flick most Saturday-morning cartoony, so I might go with whatever the hell that Dutch film is. Just to embrace the difference.

OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders

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