Did Brad Pitt Even Get to First Base?

Actually, star's Moneyball makes it to second or third, with $20.6 mil debut at weekend box office; Lion King still rules, however, and as for Taylor Lautner's Abduction...

The Lion King rerelease kept Moneyball in the park with the animation classic's second straight win at the weekend box office. 

So, how far back did Brad Pitt's baseball movie finish? 

Not far back at all, actually.

Moneyball bowed in second, with a $20.6 million Friday-Sunday take.

If the film was denied the No. 1 slot, it otherwise did well. Its gross was on the upper end of expectations, and on par with last fall's Aaron Sorkin-written Oscar vehicle, The Social Network.(Sorkin wrote Moneyball, too.)

Moneyball also made baseball somewhat money at the multiplex. Per Box Office Mojo stats, it's the biggest-opening baseball movie ever, and in the neighborhood of some of the top movies from a far hotter sports genre, football.

Elsewhere, the family movie Dolphin Tale got off to a great start, nearly matching Moneyball dollar for dollar. (Dolphin Tale, however, played at about 500 more theaters.) 

Taylor Lautner's Abduction bowed in fourth, and grossed nearly 4 million times its Rotten Tomatoes score. (Granted, the movie's Rotten Tomatoes score is a 3.) 

Opening in fifth place, Killer Elite didn't pack much punch for a Jason Statham action movie.

Captain America's Chris Evans didn't have much luck launching the drama Puncture in limited release ($35,714 at four locations).

Among the holdovers, The Help broke $150 million domestically; Contagion topped $50 million; and, Sarah Jessica Parker's I Don't Know How She Does It was not doing it at all—after two weekends, it's grossed just $8 million. 

James Franco's Rise of the Planet of the Apes ended its Top 10 run after a big seven-weekend stay, and a $173.6 million take domestically.  

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Lion King, $22.1 million
2. Moneyball, $20.6 million
3. Dolphin Tale, $20.3 million
4. Abduction, $11.2 million
5. Killer Elite, $9.5 million
6. Contagion, $8.6 million
7. Drive, $5.8 million
8. The Help, $4.4 million
9. Straw Dogs, $2.1 million
10. I Don't Know How She Does It, $2.05 million