Image Credit: Suzanne TennerThe race for the No. 1 slot this weekend was a close one, but Date Night is claiming victory with an estimated $27.1 million gross over Clash of the Titans‘ $26.8 million take (although that could all change by tomorrow morning when the true numbers are reported). Date Night, which marks a new box office opening weekend record for Tina Fey, scored a B with audiences, according to exit pollster Cinemascore. The PG-13 rated comedy about a married couple caught up in a case of mistaken identity is not a career high for Fey’s co-star Steve Carell. That honor goes to 2008′s Get Smart, which opened to $38 million on its way to $130 million. Carell’s box office prowess will be tested again shortly when Dinner for Schmucks, where he plays opposite Paul Rudd, debuts in July. Clash‘s numbers represent a 56 percent drop at the box office, quite steep for the swords and sandals epic starring Sam Worthington. The film has now grossed $110 million after two weekends of release, with its 3-D theaters accounting for approximately 43 percent of the gross.
Third place went to the animated kid flick How to Train Your Dragon. While the Dreamworks Animated film opened below many expectations, it has held on quite well in the subsequent weeks. Grossing $25.3 million with a remarkably small 13 percent drop, the Jay Baruchel-voiced flick has now earned $133.9 million after three weekends in theaters. Spot four goes to Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too, which is also in a horse race for the frame against Miley Cyrus’ romance Last Song. Estimates give the advantage to Perry, with Lionsgate reporting an $11 million gross. That figure represents a steep 62 percent fall for the Janet Jackson-starring sequel, putting its two-week take at $48.5 million. Cyrus walked away with another $10 million for her second weekend in theaters. The PG-rated film, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, fell only 37 percent, putting its cume at $42.4 million in two weekends in theaters.
Alice in Wonderland continues to perform solidly. The film may be in its sixth weekend in release, but with a scant 32 percent drop, it managed to hold onto a sixth slot in the top 10 rankings with another $5.6 million. The Tim Burton-directed fantasy has now grossed $319 million since bowing in March. Spot seven went to MGM’s Hot Tub Time Machine. The 1980s nostalgia fest fell only 33 percent since last weekend, earning an additional $5.4 million. The John Cusack-starrer has now grossed close to $37 million since it bowed three weekends ago. The Bounty Hunter took the eighth spot for the frame, grossing another $4.3 million for a four-weekend gross of $56 million. Ninth place belonged to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which fell 23 percent its fourth weekend in theaters. The PG-rated kid flick grossed an additional $4.1 million and has now earned $$53.7 million.
Spot 10 was the only other surprise of the frame. It belonged to the Christian-themed Letters to God, which only opened in 895 theaters. Still, the film managed to land in the top 10, with a weekend take of $1.1 million. The overall box office was down a bit compared to last year at this time, when Miley Cyrus dominated Easter weekend with her feature film Hannah Montana. Stay tuned for next weekend, when Kick-Ass comes storming into theaters.
Great to see How to train your dragons have a good hold. It was an amazing movie.
And to any guys out there i know it may seem more manly going and watching a movie like Clash of the Titans but if you have money for only one movie, spend it on Dragons. It was funny, exciting and heartwarming. Clash was just a terrible movie from start to finish.
Cop Out didn’t even get to 50 million. What a BOMB. Kevin Smith is a crappy hack.
Did you catch the trailer for The Other Guys? I hope Kevin Smith did, as it looks WAY better than Cop Out.
Forgot to mention, while I agree that Cop Out was terrible, that’s actually the best a movie of his has ever done.
Really?
Kevin Smith didn’t write Cop Out.
Kevin Smith is an overrated nerd. I hate his dated glasess, denim shorts and most of all his icky beard.
He only directed it so he could make money for some project, but yeah, Cop Out sucked. With that said, I do love Kevin Smith. He’s made more good movies than bad ones.
Cop Out cost only 30 mil and has already made over 44 mil. It’ll make healthy profit after international and homevideo releases.
Monday actuals for How To Train A Dragon have usually gone up a tad while other movies dropped. There could be a shift in positions considering how close the race is between first and third. With another 25 to 26 million in the register this weekend, “A Dragon”, is on fire. And write off the first weekend results as an aberration. This thing has legs and will see another 20+million dollar weekend next weekend as well. Suddenly, Dreamworks has a huge hit on its hands and maybe some Oscar nominations. People are loving this film and word of mouth is indeed a mighty weapon against garbage hype(Clash of the Titans).
I think it’s interesting how on Friday, Date Night was #1 while Clash was #2 and “Dragon” was #3. Then on Saturday Clash was first, Dragon was second and Date Night was third. This Sunday results show that Dragon is first while Clash was second and Date Night was third.
Man, I go to the movies ALL THE TIME and I’ve never been polled by Cinemascore. I would have given it a “B+”, very good, but not excellent. At my sold-out show in a huge theater in the suburbs of DC, people seemed to really love it. Walking out, I kept hearing “hilarious” over and over. Surprised that the over-all score wasn’t higher.
Date Night was very funny. Glad it was number 1.
Yeah I just got back from Date Night and it was well worth the money. Tina and Steve are hilarious together and the outtakes at the end were just icing on the cake, I give it a solid A
i want my $10 back
I second the first person’s comment. How To Train Your Dragon is just fantastic.
Date Night was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. It was spectacular.
Exactly ow many (or few) movies have you seen?
how
no it was not!!!
“Kick-Ass” is almost here!
I love Steve Carrol and Tina Fey
Perhaps Clash’s somewhat disappointing box office performance overall and its steep second weekend drop off will tame studios from trying to tack on 3D to films that were never intended for the medium. One can only hope
Interesting how the numbers are characterized in this article. The Tyler Perry movie and the Miley Cyrus movie have both been out for two weeks. The Tyler Perry movie is ahead of the Miley Cyrus movie in terms of its box office take – and yet the writer makes it sound like the Cyrus film is a success and the Perry film is a relative failure (even though it has made more money over the same time frame).
That’s because “Why Did I…” fell 62 percent from last week while “Last Song” fell 37 percent. That indicates that word of mouth for Tyler Perry’s movie is not good.
But Thomas’s point is still correct. When the dust settled, Why Did I… was still $6 million ahead of Last Song.
I’ll add my two cents as well. Strengthening the original point is that Why Did I Get Married Too is on 500 less screens than The Last Song, plus it has a much higher per screen average. So not only is it doing better than The Last Song, but it is doing so at a disadvantage.
Loved “How to Train Your Dragon.” Glad to see it doing well. Can’t recommend it enough!
Carell and fey are comic gold.
We can hope! But clash is gonna break 125 million budget easily here, and these days sales depend on others. And others save pretty much every movie and turn them into hits (this included, old dogs, The princess and the Frog, Pelham 123, pink panther 2, this can go on!)Just go to box office mojo and you will see. Don’t forget that on average studios only earn about 55% of there money back after theater cuts and everything else.