CLOSE Discover what made the Angry Birds so angry at the pigs in 'The Angry Birds Movie.' USA TODAY 
 
 Red (Jason Sudeikis) leads the charge against the pig invaders in "The Angry Birds Movie." (Photo: Rovio Animation) 
 
 Furious fowl ruled the roost at the weekend box office. 
 
 Moviegoers flocked to see The Angry Birds Movie, which took flight with $39 million and No. 1, according to studio estimates from comScore. The family comedy — an adaptation of the popular app game — scored the third-best animated debut of the year, behind Zootopia ($75.1 million) and Kung Fu Panda 3 ($41.3 million). It was enough to knock Captain America: Civil War from its perch, which fell to No. 2. 
 
 Budgeted at $73 million, Angry Birds features the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Sean Penn, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride and Josh Gad. Despite ruffling a few feathers among critics (whose reviews were only 42% positive on RottenTomatoes), audiences embraced it slightly more (61% liked it). 
 
 "It's a rare bird," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "The video game aspect is drawing that audience that knows the brand, but then there's the crossover of family audiences who have really been drawn to PG-rated movies this year. This is a strong showing for the film," although the overall weekend box office is about 25% lower than it was this time last year, when Mad Max: Fury Road and Pitch Perfect 2 started on a high note. 
 
 Dropping to second place in its third week, Civil War muscled its way to $33.1 million, with a total of $347.4 million stateside and just over $1 billion worldwide. The superhero face-off starring Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. is now the seventh highest-grossing Marvel movie, performing slightly below last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron, which notched $372 million in its first three weeks and finished with $459 million in the USA. 
 
 Opening at No. 3, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising brought down the house with a solid, if not spectacular, $21.8 million. The R-rated comedy reunites Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as parents who team up with their former fratboy nemesis (Zac Efron) to take down hard-partying sorority sisters (led by Chloë Grace Moretz). With just OK reviews (61% positive), the film brought in less than half the business of its predecessor, which premiered with $49 million in May 2014 on its way to $150.2 million. 
 
 "That was going to be a hard act to follow, no matter what," Dergarabedian says. "R-rated comedies do so well in the summer because they're fresh and funny, but it's hard to replicate that. It's usually the original content from that genre that does well," calling to mind last year's Ted 2, which opened to nearly half ($33.5 million) of the 2012 original ($54.4 million). 
 
 Bringing up the rear, Shane Black's The Nice Guys was welcomed with a better-than-expected $11.3 million in fourth place. The 1970s noir comedy stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as mismatched detectives and has been embraced by critics (90% positive reviews) as well as moviegoers (84% liked it). Disney's live-action The Jungle Book rounded out the top five with $11 million in fifth, swinging to a wild $327.5 million since opening last month. 
 
 Final figures are expected Monday. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1TwgY4n ||||| Nothing blocked the orbit of "Gravity" at the box office this weekend. 
 
 The 3-D space drama was No. 1 for a second weekend, collecting an impressive $44.3 million, according to an estimate from distributor Warner Bros. That means its ticket sales dropped only 21% from its debut -- the best second-weekend hold for any movie in wide release this year. After 10 days in theaters, the picture starring Sandra Bullock has already raked in $123.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and is on its way to grossing at least $250 million domestically. 
 
 With Alfonso Cuaron's hit still selling tickets at near light speed, newcomer "Captain Phillips" had to settle for the runner-up position this weekend. The Paul Greengrass-directed thriller starring Tom Hanks got off to a slightly better-than-expected start, debuting with a healthy $26 million. Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez's "Machete Kills," the only other film that hit theaters nationwide this weekend, flopped with an embarrassing $3.8 million. 
 
 PHOTOS: Scenes from ‘Gravity’ 
 
 Heading into the weekend, prerelease audience surveys indicated "Captain Phillips" would open with about $20 million. But even with "Gravity" still pulling adults to the multiplex, "Phillips" was able to attract an older crowd of its own: Roughly 62% of those who saw the Hanks movie this weekend were over 35. Critics have been enamored with the movie, and filmgoers loved it, too, assigning the picture an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore. 
 
 Produced by Sony Pictures for $55 million, "Captain Phillips" is based on the 2009 saga of a merchant mariner who was kidnapped by Somali pirates while steering a cargo ship around the Horn of Africa. While the film performed best in New York and Los Angeles, Sony said business was also strong in Minneapolis, where there is a high concentration of Somali immigrants. 
 
 The film marks the best live-action debut for Hanks since 2009's big-budget "Angels & Demons," which launched with $46.2 million. In recent years, the 57-year-old has struggled somewhat to find his footing at the box office. His 2011 romantic comedy "Larry Crowne," which he directed, co-wrote and starred in, tanked with just $35.6 million in domestic ticket sales. The expensive adaptation of "Cloud Atlas," in which he starred last year with Halle Berry, was a disappointment as well, though fared OK overseas. 
 
 The latest entry in Rodriguez's "Machete" film series came in below the lowest industry projections, performing far worse than the original, 2010 "Machete," which opened with $11.4 million. The few who showed up to see the sequel this weekend -- 67% of whom were male -- gave the poorly reviewed film an average grade of B-. 
 
 PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club 
 
 The movie, acquired last year for $2 million by Open Road Entertainment, stars Danny Trejo as a spy who teams up with the U.S. president (Charlie Sheen, credited as Carlos Estevez) to ward off a terrorist attack on the Capitol. 
 
 Though "Machete Kills" had a dismal opening, it wasn't as bad as the debut of a new "Romeo & Juliet" adaptation. Moviegoers had no love for the latest twist on Shakespeare's classic, which collected $509,000 from 461 theaters this weekend. 
 
 Starring Hailee Steinfeld of "True Grit" and newcomer Douglas Booth, "Romeo & Juliet" was adapted by "Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes. The film was distributed by Relativity Media, which received a fee to release the movie and didn't pay to advertise it. The picture was the first -- and perhaps now the last -- to be made by Swarovski, the crystal jewelry company. 
 
 ALSO: 
 
 'Gravity' to crater newcomer 'Captain Phillips' at box office 
 
 Charlie Sheen changes name to Carlos Estevez for 'Machete Kills' 
 
 Tom Hanks, Paul Greengrass navigate challenges of 'Captain Phillips'
– Captain America has found a worthy competitor in a bunch of flightless birds. The Angry Birds Movie soared to $39 million in its debut weekend, reports the AP, knocking Captain America: Civil War off its first-place perch, according to comScore estimates Sunday. This despite reviews that were lukewarm, reports USA Today, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 42% positive. Civil War earned an additional $33.1 million for a second-place spot, bringing its domestic total to $347.4 million. Even in its third weekend in theaters, the superhero proved mightier than a batch of new adult comedies, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Nice Guys, which took the third- and fourth-place spots. Neighbors 2 brought in $21.8 million in its debut weekend—less than half of the first film's $49 million opening in 2014. The '70s throwback buddy comedy, The Nice Guys, meanwhile, grossed $11.3 million.