Weekend Box-Office: April 9-11, 2010

UPDATE: The actual
figures were reported today and it turns out that DATE NIGHT had
over-estimated their Sunday take, so CLASH OF THE TITANS was the
real #1 movie this weekend. So that’s two weeks in a row at #1 for
CLASH. See updated figures below.

WEEKEND BOX-OFFICE

Date
Night squeaks by Clash & Dragon…?

Despite Tina Fey & Steve Carrel’s DATE NIGHT
finishing atop the box-office charts this past weekend, it looks
like DreamWorks Animation’s HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is the
"talk of the town", as it’s only $1.5M behind the #1
movie, and lost only 13% of its audience since last weekend. In
fact, only $1.5M separated the top 3 movies which means that the real
winner will be determined on Monday when the actual figures
are announced (the figures below are "estimates", like
every Sunday). Weekend "estimates" include actual
figures from Fridays and Saturdays, but estimates for how
much a movie will take in on Sunday. Sunday estimates are based on
such factors as how similar movies performed in past weekends,
etc…

DRAGON is also the 2nd
highest grossing movie of the year behind ALICE IN THE
WONDERLAND and seems to have "legs" which may even take
it over the $200M mark. The film was lauded by almost every
critic out there and seems to be the first big surprise hit of
the year. Last week’s #1 movie, CLASH OF THE TITANS, surprisingly
didn’t lose as much of its audience as some predicted, as it
stayed strong in 2nd place, despite losing about 55% of its
audience from last weekend. The film has already past the $130M
mark, and apparently had a budget of around $125M.

Another "surprise" this week came in the
10th spot. A film called LETTERS TO GOD about a kid with cancer
who (you guessed it!) writes letters to God to help him cope with
his disease. Yeeeesh. Anyway, the film was backed by Christians
and managed to crack the top 10 despite getting ripped by
most critics ("This story of a courageous child’s
battle with cancer would have been so much better if it had been a
documentary."). The two films to get knocked out of the top 10
this week include Martin Scorsese’s SHUTTER ISLAND ($125M) and
SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE ($30M).

Next week sees the release of two films, the first
of which is a remake of the 2007 film DEATH
AT A FUNERAL starring many of the top African-American
comedian-actors out there and directed by the dude who majorly f*cked
up the remake of THE WICKER MAN (if you don’t believe me, check
this out!), as well as the long-awaited KICK-ASS,
which is probably the exact opposite of the former film, in its
originality and target audience, at least. If you haven’t read our
own JoBlo.com review of the film yet, check that out right HERE.
So I guess there’s only one question left: How much money do you
think KICK-ASS will make in its first weekend? VOTE
HERE!!!

ACCESS
BOX-OFFICE ARCHIVES  HERE