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For the eighth consecutive day, The Amazing Spider-Man finished in first place at the box office on Tuesday. More importantly, there was finally some good news for the flagging Sony Pictures reboot. Tuesday’s earnings of $8.5 million are a full million better than Monday’s result.

While I know that a bunch of you are ready and waiting with the emails to remind me that Tuesday is always the strongest weekday at the box office, I would still note that Spidey improved 13.3% from Monday. This is better than average for any title, much less the number one film in release. And at this point, the Spider-Man team will take any good news they can get, at least with regards to domestic box office.

The good news exists for more movies than just The Amazing Spider-Man, though. Most of the top ten sees the expected Monday to Tuesday increase. Ted, a title that I mentioned yesterday has struggled on weekdays, increased 6% to $4.75 million. This brings its running total up to $129.1 million, and again I say WOW! about that number.

Meanwhile, Pixar’s Brave improved 24% to $3.15 million. The first Pixar movie with a female protagonist has now earned $179.6 million after 19 days. How does this compare with other Pixar releases? You may be surprised. Cars 2 required 35 days to reach the same result while Up and Finding Nemo needed 16, The Incredibles 18, Wall-E and Monsters Inc. 23, Cars 24 and Ratatouille 31. The outlier is Toy Story 3 with its scalding pace that accumulated this much in only eight days.

Then again, Toy Story 3 earned $35 million more in its first eight days than The Amazing Spider-Man has managed. It is singularly unique among Pixar films in this regard. What we can conclude from the above is that Brave looks like a $250 million earner, give or take a bit. Given the struggles of Cars 2, this performance places Pixar right back on top of the animation world, which is where they belong. To wit, Brave should surpass Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted at some point over the next two weeks. It will also join the $200 million club in seven days or so. That’s a milestone Cars 2 never managed.

Apparently, Tuesday is a good day for stripping as Magic Mike increases 26% from $2,232,780 to $2,802,415. The Steven Soderbergh movie has now earned $77,864,302, and I sincerely hope that all involved are paid in singles. The movie with a tiny $7 million budget (I guess it’s awkward to use the word tiny with this topic) is as strong a financial winner as we will see all year.

Last weekend’s less heralded new releases, Savages and Katy Perry: Part of Me finish fifth and sixth on Tuesday. The Oliver Stone movie earned $2 million, an 11% increase from Monday. With a running total of $17,830,230, it should eke into the $20 million range by close of business Thursday.

The Katy Perry movie continues to play better on weekdays than weekends. Its $1.35 million is an increase of 15% from Monday. The strange stat to me is that on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, this movie earned $5.6 million while it managed only $7.1 million over the weekend. That sort of weekday to weekend distribution is very rare. Its child-friendly nature is clearly aiding its weekday numbers thus far.

Seventh place goes to the afore-mentioned Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. This film experiences one of the strongest daily gains within the top ten, increasing 36% to $1.28 million. With a running tally of $198,129,143, it will cross $200 million by the close of business tomorrow. I’ll add some analysis of this in either the next column or, more likely, the one on Friday.

The rest of the top ten is comprised of two small-scale hits and a disaster. Madea’s Witness Protection adds another $1,203,349, a 15% gain from Monday. With $48,072,942 in the bank, it should pass $50 million in the next two days. Tyler Perry is among the most impressive content creators in the industry today. His consistency is impeccable. The disaster is the tenth place finisher, People Like Us. Yesterday’s $375,000 still doesn’t bring its running total into double digits. In fact, with current box office of $9.6 million, it will not reach that mark until tomorrow.

Moonrise Kingdom, a movie BOP’s Reagen Sulewski correctly describes as the Wes Anderson-iest movie ever made, continues to exceed expectations. Another $528,688 yesterday is a 10% improvement from Monday. With $27,788,250 already in the bank, Moonrise Kingdom has surpassed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou to become the second most popular Wes Anderson movie. The Royal Tenenbaums’ $52.4 million is still in play but I don’t think Moonrise Kingdom will get there. The engrossing story of teen love is down 40% from Tuesday-to-Tuesday. If you haven’t seen Moonrise Kingdom yet, I highly recommend it.

The top ten’s combined box office revenue yesterday was $25.9 million. This is an increase of 15% from Monday’s $22.5 million. The numbers will drop from this level today and tomorrow. Then, we get a fresh slate of new releases and the process begins anew. I hope that those of you who are new readers are beginning to understand this pattern of weekday box office behavior. Tuesday is always the most fun to discuss since the numbers are bigger. Thursday is always lame because it’s the worst day with the smallest numbers. Monday and Wednesday fall somewhere in between, with Monday generally providing better conversation topics while Wednesday occasionally features new releases.

Daily Box Office for Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Rank	Film	Distributor	Daily Gross	Daily Change	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	The Amazing Spider-Man	Sony/Columbia	$8,631,651	+14%	- 75%	$153,210,348
2	Ted	Universal Pictures	$4,753,760	+6%	- 44%	$129,080,835
3	Brave	Walt Disney Pictures	$3,153,214	+24%	- 45%	$179,663,513
4	Magic Mike	Warner Bros. Pictures	$2,802,415	+26%	- 49%	$77,864,302
5	Savages	Universal Pictures	$1,944,720	+7%	NA	$19,774,950
6	Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D	Paramount Pictures	$1,355,347	+16%	N/A	$12,766,035
7	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	Paramount Pictures	$1,281,846	+36%	- 41%	$198,129,143
8	Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection	Lionsgate	$1,203,349	+15%	- 54%	$48,072,942
9	Moonrise Kingdom	Focus Features	$528,688	+10%	- 40%	$27,788,250
10	People Like Us	DreamWorks	$375,000	+49%	- 45%	$9,565,902
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations