This weekend's top spot at the box office was claimed by Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the paranoid hypochondriac giraffe and Gloria the hippo in DreamWorks' "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa."

It wasn't just critics who embraced it. It was children and adults alike, who invaded movie theaters over the weekend to watch the animated sequel "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which grossed a huge $63.5 million from Friday through Sunday, according to early estimates, surpassing by far the $47.2 mil that the first "Madagascar" flick raked in over Memorial Day weekend 2005.

"It just shows people seem happy to escape to the movies and have a good laugh," said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks Animation, "The movie really exceeded all of our expectations and all the box office predictors."

The family flick, which tells the story of a group of New York zoo animals who embark on a plane which crashes somewhere in Africa, borrowed the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The movie written and directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, scored the best opening of the year for a family film, overpassing "Wall-E" and "Kung Fu Panda" which opened with about $63 million and $60 million respectively in summer.

Meanwhile, Universal Studio's comedy "Role Models," starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as two immature, slacker salesmen, came in at second place with $19.3 million.

Last week's chart topper, teen flick "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," dropped on the third spot with $9.3 million, bringing its three-week total to $75.7 million while Angelina Jolie's "Changeling," directed by Clint Eastwood cashed in $7.3 million, for a three-week total of $20.6 million.

Wrapping up the top five was Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" which fell just 35 percent in grossing $6.5 mil over the course of its second weekend.

The weekend's other new wide release, the Weinstein Co. music comedy "Soul Men," opened weakly with $5.6 million, despite the lure of Samuel L. Jackson and his late co-stars, Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, who died last summer.

Everywhere else, "Quantum of Solace" claimed the top spot in all 60 of its foreign markets with a weekend haul of $106.5 million, distributor Columbia Pictures said.