Well, there wasn’t much of a box office battle this weekend as Clash of the Titans easily slayed the competition with a total weekend haul of $61.4 Million. Some weekend totals are reflecting Thursday night earnings as well, which brings the total closer to $64 Million.
Despite the fact that most critics were horrified by the look of the post-production 3D of the movie, and practically begged audiences to see the 2D instead, it seems that roughly half of the weekend revenue was from 3D screenings (LA Times.) The 3D money train marches on, at least for another weekend.
It is of interest to note that the movie did drop almost 20% from Friday to Saturday, which can be a direct result of bad word of mouth.
Tyler Perry pulled out yet another surprise as Why Did I Get Married Tooearned $30 Million. Perry has an an unconventional marketing strategy-he never pre-screens his movies for critics. His movies always enjoy an opening day unfettered by any reviews, positive or negative.
Perry has managed to steadily become a reliable box office force, and this marks his second best opening yet (Madea goes to Jail made $41M last year.) EWis reporting a Cinemascore of “A” by film goers, and Cinemascore is usually an excellent indicator of whether a film will have a big drop-off in upcoming weeks or not. This is Perry’s eighth film.
How to Train Your Dragon dropped about 33%, which is better than average. Most films drop around 40%. That allowed it to pick up around $29.2 over the weekend. With Easter weekend being family oriented, Dragon was probably an attractive alternative to some of the more adult oriented fare.
Dragon is now is within striking distance of $100 Million after 10 days in release (currently it has made $92 Million). However, with a budget of $165 Million, it still has a ways to go before breaking even.
Miley Cyrus’s tear jerker The Last Song was released on Wednesday, and thus far it has made $25 Million, and $16 Million of that came from the weekend. It has already earned back its budget of $20 Million.
Alice in Wonderland made $8.2 Million, and its 5 week total is almost $310 Million. I certainly didn’t think it would see those kinds of numbers. Well played, Tim Burton.
Last week’s holdover Hot Tub Time Machine continues to be anything but hot,but it made $8 Million in its second weekend, for a cumulative of $27 Million.
Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler’s The Bounty Hunter made $6.2 Million, and stands just shy of $49 Million after 3 weeks. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (7th place) and She’s Out of my League (8th place) are both shaping up to be modest hits, thanks to relatively low budgets.
Next week’s big release is the Steve Carrell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night, noticeably not in 3D.
