Weekend box office estimates, April 16 – 18. Rank. Movie Title – Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #
1. How to Train Your Dragon - $20,00,000 I 3,825 I $158,618,000 I 4
2. Kick-Ass - $19,750,000 I 3,065 I $19,750,000 I 1
3. Date Night - $17,300,000 I 3,380 I $49,246,000 I 2
4. Death at a Funeral - $17,000,000 I 2,459 I $17,000,000 I 1
5. Clash of the Titans - $15,770,000 I 3,753 I $132,985,000 I 3
This weekend seemed to be full of surprises. Although we’ve got a new number one movie this week, it’s seen the top of the list before.
How to Train Your Dragon pulled a surprising lead this weekend, coming in at number one after its four weeks of release. I haven’t been doing this too long, but it seems safe to say that when there are two new releases in a weekend, the number one spot rarely goes to a movie that was in third place last weekend.
Kick-Ass seemed to under perform at the box office this weekend. Making the movie an R-rated feature may have been box office suicide for this film, no matter what critics are saying. Still, Jeff Bayer seems to think it’s something worth checking out, and I bet it’ll stay on our top 5 for at least a couple more weeks. (Check out Morrow's 9/10 review here.)
All signs of Date Night moving up seem to be lost by this week’s numbers. Despite being an enjoyable movie, it seems that Tina Fey and Steve Carell don’t have the power to knock it up a notch. But then again, who knows, maybe I’m in for another surprise weekend which sees Date Night get the love it deserves. (Jeff Bayer's review can be seen here.)
Death doesn’t seem to be knocking on anyone’s door this weekend. The comedy released on Friday didn’t manage to make it past number four. With the previews that I’ve seen, it’s not hard to imagine why. I’d advise most people to stick to the British original. (Read Jeff Bayer's review here.)
Finally, Clash of the Titans fell far this weekend. No telling why that is, but the movie that beat out Date Night in its opening weekend last week is going to have to try harder next weekend if it hopes to make the top five again.