Image Credit: New Line CinemaIt was a good weekend for Freddy Krueger. The 1980s horror villain is back with a vengeance, with The Nightmare on Elm Street remake earning a solid $32 million, landing it in first place at the box office this weekend. Still, even with the success of Nightmare — which stars Jackie Earle Haley as the disfigured madman who kills teenagers in their dreams — this weekend’s box office still couldn’t trump last year’s total in early May, when X-Men Origins: Wolverine grossed a boffo $85 million. (Of course, Hollywood will likely make up for it next weekend, when Robert Downey Jr. dons the Iron Man suit once again; the film is already hitting across the season, where its opened in 53 territories this past weekend, taking in $100.2 million) And though Nightmare earned $32 million, the film fell steeply between Friday and Saturday night, and earned a C+ Cinemascore, which suggests that the film hasn’t been very well received by audiences.
Second place for the weekend belonged to How to Train Your Dragon, which, once again, held in remarkably well. The PG-rated 3-D flick grossed an estimated $10.8 million, down only 29 percent since last weekend. Its total gross now stands at $192.3 million. The Steve Carell, Tina Fey-starrer Date Night fell only 27 percent, collecting an additional $7.6 million. The PG-13 comedy has now grossed $73.6 million. Not bad for two television stars, huh?
Despite a weak opening, The Back-Up Plan held on fairly well its second weekend in theaters. Falling 41 percent, Jennifer Lopez’s romantic comedy grossed an additional $7.2 million to put the film’s two-week total at $22.9 million. Fifth place for the three-day period went to the other newcomer of the weekend, Furry Vengeance. The PG-rated family film earned only $6.5 million but scored a B+ with audiences. The Brendan Fraser-starrer is unlikely to do much business going forward, but considering its a co-production between Summit Entertainment and Participant Pictures, its unlikely the film’s disappointment will hurt either company much.
Sixth place went to The Losers. The film — which disappointed in its opening weekend — fell 36 percent its second weekend in theaters, grossing an additional $6 million. The Jeffrey Dean Morgan-Zoe Saldana action flick has collected just $18 million after ten days in release. Clash of the Titans took the seventh spot, earning an estimated $5.9 million, putting its total gross at $154 million. Kick-Ass earned another $4.4 million in its third weekend of release, landing an eighth place finish. The R-rated film continues to fall steeply — it dropped 52 percent, but has grossed a total of $42 million. Death at a Funeral — which took in $4 million — and Disney’s Oceans documentary, which raked in $2.6 million, rounded out the top ten. The R-rated Chris Rock comedy lost 50 percent of its value since last weekend, and, in three weeks of release, has grossed $34.7 million. Disney’s doc dropped 57 percent, earning a cume of $13.5 million.
In limited release, the latest Nicole Holofcener drama Please Give grossed an impressive $128,696 in five theaters for a strong per-screen average of $25,000. IFC’s disturbing horror flick Human Centipede only opened on one screen and earned $12,400 for the frame. Check back next weekend when we discover whether Iron Man 2 will break box office records.
Soon Iron Man 2 will be here! Hooray for movie season!!
It won’t hold a candle to Kick Ass.
Why,because it doesn’t have 12 year old girls killing people and dropping F-Bombs? Iron Man 2 is gonna kick everyone’s butts next weekend.
Hey Bobby, on rottentomatoes Kick-Ass has better reviews than Iron Man 2. Sure it will make more money, but stop bringing up Hit Girl whenever people like you are bringing the movie down OK?
Hey Jose,I actually want to see Kick-Ass,it looks pretty cool,but I’m gonna stand up for ole shellhead any chance I get.And if Kick-Ass has gotten such great reviews,how come no one is going to see it? At the rate it’s going it will be out on DVD in a few weeks.Here’s hoping Iron Man 2 breaks the Dark Knight’s weekend record.Make mine Marvel.
Kick-ass is extremely lame, just dumb… and that’s the reason why people aren’t watching this so-called movie
Kick Ass was excellent. I love the Hit Girl stuff, she stole ever scene. I hope Iron Man 2 is good but all the reviews for it have been pretty lukewarm.
It will definitely earn more money than Kick Ass. But besides Iron Man 2, this summer is going to be BORING. There are no movies coming out.
I agree Kick-Ass kicked a#%!!
IM2 can only hope to be as good.
Bobby, do you have something against 12-year-old girls killing people and dropping F-bombs? You shouldn’t, because it is AWESOME!
Big Daddy owned, too! I thought the Red Mist character was pretty lame, though, especially by the end.
The reason people aren’t going to see it is because it’s 18A, meanwhile Iron Man is what, G or PG? caters perfectly to the 12 year old demographic it’s shooting for.
Actually,it’s PG-13,which is pretty smart in my book.This way everyone can go see it,rather than limiting your audience by getting an R rating.
@ Celia: What about Sex & the City 2? I know it’s not an action flick, but I’m pretty damn excited for it to come out. Although that one’s in May. I have no idea what else is going to be released this summer.
Iron Man 2 is already here in the UK!!
Am going to see it today or tomorrow!!
I call the this summer’s box office disappointment to be Robbin Hood and Jonah Hex. Their trailers really look bad.
agreed. In the trailer for Robin Hood when said character does that loud-scream-inspiration-thing i was like…really?…another one of these?
i can’t wait for the hood, musicloversmatch
Saw Iron Man 2 in London yesterday. To say it’s mediocre would be kind.
previews look awful and a friend who saw it said it sucked. However you can bet it will not matter people don’t care if something is good or not just the namebrand. It will make a ton of money which is ashame.
You must be talking about Avatar.
Since when did “Avatar” have name recognition?
I was referring to everyone that went to Avatar just to be the next money donor to the 3D gimmick.No one cared if the movie was any good,they just wanted to see pretty things that seemed to jump out of the screen.Wow!
Saw it in Wellington yesterday. Mediocre to adequate here. Very disappointing given the potential. A lot of dazzle but no razzle. Marvel, your movies are broken! Fix them.
I was really looking forward to seeing Iron Man 2, but sadly it sucked. The only good thing about it is Scarlett Johansson in a catsuit. Prrrrr. Prepare to be disappointed y’all!
Just watched the old Nightmare last night. Truly a classic. This is just garbage. It’s going to have a steep drop off next week. Good opening weekend, not enough to launch a franchise.
I don’t know how you can say it’s not enough to launch a franchise when the original nightmare on elm street only took in $25 million in its entire run (and it spawned many sequals)
Let’s see how about adjusting for inflation??
Everybody: Go to “Please Give.” Glad it opened impressively, even if it is
in only 5 theatres. Great movie. Watch for it in your neighborhood.
The J.Lo film The Back-Up Plan is really cute and funny! Best rom-com in a while and different than most. Plus the male lead Alex O’Loughlin is hot as hell!
Kris…your post couldn’t sound more like an ad for the film.
I saw The Back-Up Plan this weekend as well. It was pretty funny, I don’t understand why everyone said it sucked. Oh and I loved her outfits! I want that white dress!lol And Alex O’Loughlin is fine as hell
Nobody wants to pay money to watch J.Lo, not anymore.
I want to see The back up plan
Another ad for the movie…
Some of us really liked Back-up Plan and are fans of Alex O’Loughlin. Are we not allowed to say so because some people prefer to see people get murdered in their sleep?
I saw JLO’s Backup Plan and I am so sorry I wasted my money. It’s more like a 3rd-rate romantic comedy that belongs on TV and not worth the price of a movie ticket. She is still playing cutesy JLO in perfect full makeup and false eyelashes no matter what the situation is. There was absolutely nothing realistic about it, it was so predictable, and the comedy was not funny. I can see why it got such terrible reviews, and why it only opened at $12M. For her sake its good it held on fairly well considering its low opening.
Iron Man 2 and Kick-Ass would make a nice 2-fer next weekend.
I saw Kick Ass last night and thought it was a really good movie. I love the people that say it was a bomb at the box office. It only cost 30 million to make and its currently at 40 million mark. Its all ready made a profit and that’s even before it comes out on blu-ray or DVD.
I’m starting to get tired of this. Please do some research. A movie does not get to keep all of its’ gross. Movie theaters keep around 40%. Plus, production costs for the movie don’t include marketing and print development. Kick-Ass will probably make a profit, but that is after foreign revenue and home video.
Just saw Nightmare. I was not a huge fan of the original, other than of Robert Englund. I thought the remake was pretty good. Definitely better than some of the other horror remakes of late. I felt they stayed true to the original while doing some new things. The blood and gore was good and it was overall creepy. I didn’t like the “Oh, is he really innocent?” storyline and the chick that played Nancy, well she wasn’t that good. As a horror movie fan in general, I enjoyed it.
I love the The Back Up Plan , a great romantic comedy.
So fresh and funny
“So fresh and funny”? Let me guess…you’re an intern, and your job is to distribute free ads for the movie disguised as honest moviegoer chit chat…
Iron Man 2 grossed over 100 million dollars from the UK, Australia, France, and Korea over the weekend. It also broke international IMAX records and all this is before it opens in China, India, and a few other territories this weekend. And its getting rave reviews where it counts,from the masses buying movie tickets. Expect slammed movie theaters across America starting Wednesday and the box office top three to look something akin to this:
1) Iron Man 2 – triple digits (+100)mil
2) Elm St. – 11 mil
3) How 2 Train Your Dragon – 8.5mil
I was reading an article over on Yahoo! movies and in it they said that the prediction for the weekend was at 155 million.I’m thinking in the 140-150 million dollar range.I haven’t seen this much buzz for a movie since The Dark Knight.