What looked like a close race for first this weekend between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Rio 2, has slanted in favor of the animated sequel.  Both films were expected to come in around $40 million for the three day frame but, after Rio 2 took in an estimated $12 million yesterday, it looks like the Fox feature will wind up closer to $45 million through Sunday.  That’s better than the $39.2 million the original Rio earned on its opening weekend in 2011.  As for the First Avenger, Captain America 2 appears to be headed for about $42 million in its sophomore frame, or a drop of 58%.  Captain America was down 61% on its second frame in 2011, with Iron Man 3 declining 58% last summer.

As expected, this weekend’s two additional new releases were playing for smaller stakes.  Oculus, the latest supernatural horror pic from producer Jason Blum, earned an estimated $4.9 million from 2,648 locations on Friday and should hit $13 million this weekend - equal to the launch of Blum’s Insidious in April 2011.  Draft Day took in a reported $3.5 million from 2,781 venues yesterday.  The sports drama starring Kevin Costner is now expecting $11 million for its first weekend, or the lower end of the range that Lionsgate/Summit execs were hoping for.  We’ll have complete box office details tomorrow.

  Title

Friday

Total

1.

  Rio 2

$12,000,000

$12

2.

  Captain America 2

$11,900,000

$129.5

3.

  Oculus

$4,940,000

$4.94

4.

  Draft Day

$3,580,000

$3.58

5.

  Divergent

$2,300,000

$119.6