Rihanna's Animated Film 'Home' Debuts at No. 1 With $54 Million Opening Weekend

Rihanna's first-ever animated film, Home, opened to a surprising $54 million over the weekend and grossed $102.2 million worldwide. It beat out the Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart flick, Get Hard, for the top spot.

The movie was the best showing for a DreamWorks title in recent years and vastly exceeded expectations. Originally slated to debut in the mid $30 million range, it has been called the "smash hit, the smash non-sequel hit no less, that DreamWorks desperately needed."

Also starring Jennifer Lopez, Steve Martin and Jim Parsons, the film was distributed by 20^th Century Fox and was based on Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday. It follows the adventures of a teenage girl left alone after an alien invasion of Earth.

Both Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez sang songs for the film.

"It's a diverse cast and we drew a diverse audience, which I think is really special and something you don't see in animated films," said Chris Aronson, domestic distribution head for 20th Century Fox. "That just ends up broadening the appeal of the film. Minorities made up for half of the audience."

The movie also opened to fairly positive reviews:

"The creators of Home made an inspired choice in that regard for their little hero, recruiting Jim Parsons of "The Big Bang Theory" for the job, and they made another by pairing him with the pop star Rihanna," wroteThe New York Times. "The result is a charming concoction with positive messages for younger children about conquering fears, understanding outsiders and knowing yourself."

 "Home errs on the side of sentiment, and that's not a bad thing," said Vulture. "There's a lot of goofiness, to be sure, much of it having to do with Oh and the Boov's silly syntax. But the film pulls back at points where others might double down. Instead, Tip's longing for her mother and Oh's longing for acceptance start to weigh more heavily on the plot, and the film gradually captures a sense of gentle, but very real, desperation. Warming hearts and jerking tears are par for the course in kiddie flicks. But it's rare to find one that has this many emotional crescendos - and manages them all gracefully and cinematically."