'Ted' outstrips 'Magic Mike' at box office

It's both a bear and bull market for Hollywood.

The bear is "Ted," Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane's comedy for Universal Pictures about a talking teddy bear, which opened as the No. 1 movie with $54.1 million, The Associated Press reports.

And the bulls are baring it in the Warner Bros. release "Magic Mike," Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh's male-stripper tale that debuted a strong No. 2 with $39.2 million.

The two new movies were backed by a deep bench, with Pixar Animation's Disney fairy tale "Brave" holding up well at No. 3 with $34 million in its second weekend. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection," the latest from the dependable breadwinner for Lionsgate Films, opened solidly at No. 4 with $26.4 million.

The four movies combined to keep Hollywood in the money compared with the same weekend last year, when "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" launched with $97.9 million.

"It was absolutely astonishing that we're beating the same weekend a year ago given the enormity of the film, the big sci-fi blockbuster that opened then," Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said. "This played out like a holiday weekend without it really being a holiday weekend. It speaks volumes about the importance of having a wide variety of films in the marketplace."