Box office forecasters may have learned to underestimate Sony’s Think Like a Man at their peril. For the second weekend in a row, the film eclipsed predictions, coming in at No. 1 with $18 million, according to studio estimates. The pundits turned out to have misfired on several fronts. Coming in second was the animated family film Pirates! Band of Misfits, which carried off an $11.5-million booty to edge out Warner Bros.’ The Lucky One, which collected around $11.3 million and Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games with $11.2 million. (The finishing order of those three films could be altered when a final tally is announced on Monday. Weekend estimates are based on actual ticket sales for Friday and Saturday and an educated guess for Sunday.) So where did that leave Universal’s The Five-Year Engagement, the film that was supposed to wind up at the top, according to tracking studies and the calculations of the experts? Why, in fifth place, that’s where, although with an estimated $11.1 million, it, too, could see its final position on the box-office chart readjusted when final figures are announced. Two other weekend entries, Safe from Lionsgate and The Raven from Relativity, finished in sixth and seventh place, with $7.7 million and $7.2 million respectively. There were no surprises at the overseas box office, where Disney/Marvel’s The Avengers came in at No. 1. the only surprise may have been the size of the victory — $178 million in 39 markets (not including Russia, China, or Japan), including record takes in several of them. The superhero movie is due to open domestically next weekend. »

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