Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, has broken box-office records for animated movies in Russia and the CIS on its opening day, local distributor, Central Partnership (CP) said late on Friday.

The third installment of popular Madagascar series by DreamWorks Animation had Thursday box-office takings of 130 million rubles [$3.96 million] on the back of the widest release at 1,830 locations in Russia and the CIS, except Ukraine, ever.

"It is a wonderful movie to watch it with all your family. Madagascar 3 is getting 10 million rubles [$305,000] per hour on average and we hope it will keep this level as long as possible," CP film distribution director Vadim Vereshchagin was quoted in the statement as saying.

Madagascar 3 left behind Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which collected 125 million rubles [$3.81 million] in the first showing in Russia in 2009, and the previous CP record release, Shrek Forever After, which took 89 million rubles [$2.71 million] in 2010 in the first day.

The Russian Booker's Bulletin film analytical service forecasts the animation movie could take 640-660 million rubles [$19.52-$20.13 million] over the first weekend which could also be record takings.