Disney movie's terrible box office debut

Sony's little-green-men invasion movie "Battle: Los Angeles" beat tracking and had a solid North American debut this weekend, grossing $36 million and leading the domestic box office, according to Sunday studio estimates.

But Disney's family film "Mars Needs Moms" found no traction at the box office, grossing just $6.8 million, one of the studio's biggest misses in years. Produced by Robert Zemeckis at a cost of more than $150 million, the film probably won't find much solace in the foreign market, where it debuted to only $2.1 million.

Also opening wide this weekend, Warner's "Little Red Riding Hood," which stars Amanda Seyfried, performed below tracking in the high-teens range, grossing just $14.1 million.

Among indies, Focus' remake of "Jane Eyre" grossed $182,314 opening at four theaters for a solid $45,579-per-screen average.

Here's how the top 10 shaped up. Full report continues below chart:

But the weekend's most notable performance -- or under-performance, as the case may be -- came from "Mars Needs Moms," the last film produced by Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital before Disney shuttered the facility and took the write-off.

Disney executives didn't have high hopes for the CG/motion-capture film in the weeks before it premiered, doubting it would clear $10 million.

Unfortunately, their fears were justified.

"If we knew what went wrong, we would have tried to fix it," said Disney worldwide theatrical distribution president Chuck Viane. "Like a year ago, when we had 'Alice in Wonderland,' this was one of those big films we put into spring break with the expectation that the audience would love it."

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Those who saw it didn't exactly hate it, with the film registering a B grade from moviegoer customer-satisfaction survey firm Cinemascore.

Having Paramount's "Rango" in the marketplace provided stiff competition. And with "Mars Needs Moms" voice star Seth Green facing off against "Rango's" Johnny Depp, well, you could kind of guess how that would turn out.

In weekend two, "Rango" declined only around 40 percent to $23.1 million, giving the non-3D CG-animated film $68.7 million after two weeks -- and perhaps dispelling the notion that 3D is a huge selling point for family-targeted animated movies.

"The 3D on 'Mars Needs Moms' is terrific," one Disney official pointed out to TheWrap on Thursday.

Overall, the domestic box office was down only around 13 percent from the same weekend last year, which was led by the $62.7 million weekend-two performance of "Alice in Wonderland." The way things have been going, that's actually not too bad.

The driver this weekend was the action-packed "Battle: L.A.," which was predicted by its distributor to bring in around $28 million-$32 million this weekend.

Produced at a cost of $70 million after tax breaks, according to Sony, the film also grossed $16.7 million opening in 33 overseas territories.

Starring Aaron Eckhart as a U.S. Marine staff sergeant dealing with hostile extra-terrestrials, who are after our water and way of life, "Battle: L.A." also garnered a B overall Cinemascore.

The movie scored an audience that was 68 percent male and 55 percent over the age of 25, unfortunately sustaining the box office's lack of momentum with young adults and teenagers this year.

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As for "Red Riding Hood," the movie was itself unable to push big-enough quantities of young females into the multiplexes.

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and co-starring Gary Oldman, the film was produced at a cost of $39 million, putting the wolf at the door in terms of profitability.

CBS Films' "Beastly," which stood to get hurt by the demographically similar "Red Riding Hood," actually fared well, grossing $5.1 million while declining just under 50 percent in weekend No. 2. The film has grossed $17 million to date, which matches its negative cost.

Among other holdovers, Universal Matt Damon film "The Adjustment Bureau" also dropped less than 50 percent in its second weekend, grossing $11.5 million. It's now up to $38.5 million domestically.