The top two movies this week showed a huge disconnect between critical reviews and audience satisfaction.  Case in point, Hop. The Easter tale about an adorable rabbit who is the heir to the Easter Bunny empire was soundly denounced by most critics, earning a measly 24% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, that didn’t scare audiences away from the film, which handily won the weekend box office, earning about $38.1 million.  Considering the fact that Easter is still several weeks away, and audiences loved the film (those polled by Cinemascore gave it an A-), this film could end up earning quite a bit of money. This is the second film from new studio Illumination Entertainment. They released Despicable Me in 2010.

The feat is also impressive because there is not a lot of star power behind the film, which is a mix of live action and animation.  James Marsden is not exactly a household name, and kids don’t know or care who Russell Brand is.

A big surprise to a lot of box office prognosticators was the under-performance of Source Code. Many of us thought it was a shoo-in for first place, particularly since it is one of the most well-reviewed films of the year. However, audiences didn’t agree, and gave the film a B on Cinemascore. When it was all said and done, Source Code made about $15.1 million, just under half the cost of its budget.

Bradley Cooper’s mind twisting thriller Limitless outperformed box office predictions and handily won the weekend box office with $19M. It also was a hit with audiences, earning a B+ cinemascore.

This is Cooper’s first true starring vehicle, and with a budget of around $27M, it should easily prove profitable. With The Hangover 2 right around the corner, Cooper will surely confirm his status as an A-list talent.

Johnny Depp helped propel Rango to number two with $15.2M.  It dropped a respectable 32% from last weekend, bringing its three week total to $92.6M.

Battle: Los Angeles took quite a tumble; dropping off 59% from its opening weekend. It managed to make $14.6M over the weekend.

Matthew McConaughey scored fourth place with his Lincoln Lawyer debut. The film made $13.4m and was well received by audiences.  Entertainment Weekly reports that this is the first film to join forces with Groupon.  The popular daily coupon site sold discounted tickets to the movie for $6.  They sold almost 200,000 tickets.  It will be interesting to see if this model will be adapted by future films.

At  the time of this writing, the Tina Fey/Steve Carell comedy Date Night is reported to have narrowly won the box office.  However, The Clash of the Titans was so close behind that it is possible adjusted totals may flip the positions of the two movies. Box Office Mojo is reporting that  Date Night made around $27.1 Million, while Clash made $26.7 Million, a tight margin of victory, to be sure.

This was the biggest opening weekend of Tina Fey’s career thus far, although Carell has had larger openings before.  The $27 Million take is quite good for a comedy.

Clash of the Titans dropped about 56% from opening weekend, which is higher than usual. Most films see about a 30% drop. The larger drop signals that interest for the movie may be waning quickly.

Good thing the flick had a big opening weekend. Clash has now made a total of $110 Million after two weekends, and looks like it will recoup its $125 Million budget. Incidentally, it looks like about 40% of that total was from 3D screens, meaning more than half came from 2D screenings.

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.

Wow.  I’ve got to say that it was a pretty tepid weekend at the movies. We had a couple of new releases that I thought would just rake it in this weekend, but instead, they barely registered a blip on the radar screen.

How to Train Your Dragon actually won the throne this weekend, but I have to think the $43.3 Million opening was a disappointment for Dreamworks. This movie has family appeal and enjoyed stellar critical reviews, but had an underwhelming opening.  I have seen the budget reported at between $165 Million and $180 Million, either of which will ensure an uphill battle for the movie to recoup its costs.

Remember last week when I hinted that How to Train might have difficulty getting booked on 3D screens because Alice in Wonderland is still going strong? Well, it may be entirely coincidence, but when the husband and I tried to find a theater nearby to take our kids to see How to Train Your Dragon, we couldn’t find one.

It was no big deal to drive to one a bit out of our neighborhood, but I wonder if this happened nationwide?  I have lived in my city 15 years, and I have never had to drive out of my little five mile radius to find a movie, especially such a big release.