Saturday, April 17, 2010

To the Derby's Starting Gate

Now with Extra Salty Add On.

The Nikkster provides early numbers for a slow and sleepy April weekend. (No holidays, no nuttin' to goose the numbers.)

1. Kick-Ass (Lionsgate) NEW [3,065 Theaters] -- Friday $7.5M, Estimated Weekend $19M

2. Death At A Funeral (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,459 Theaters] -- Friday $5.6M, Estimated Weekend $17.5

3. Date Night (Fox) Week 2 [3,380 Theaters] -- Friday $5.4M (-40%), Estimated Weekend $17.5M, Estimated Cume $48.8M

4. Clash Of The Titans 3D (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,753 Theaters] -- Friday $4.4M (-47%), Estimated Weekend $14.5M, Estimated Cume $131.5M

5. [How To] Train Your Dragon 3D DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) Week 4 [3,825 Theaters] -- Friday $4.2M (-40%), Estimated Weekend $15.5M, Estimated Cume $154M

6. The Last Song (Disney) Week 3 [2,767 Theaters] -- Friday $1.9M, Estimated Weekend $5.4M, Estimated Cume $49.5M

7. Why Did I Get Married Too (Lionsgate) Week 3 [1,859 Theaters] -- Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $3.8M, Estimated Cume $54.5M

8. Hot Tub Time Machine (UA/MGM) Week 4 [2,308 Theaters] -- Friday $1.0M, Estimated Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $41.7M

9. Bounty Hunter (Sony) Week 5 [2,475 Theaters] -- Friday $975K, Estimated Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $60M

10. Alice In Wonderland 3D (Disney) Week 7 [2,024 Theaters] -- Friday $940K, Estimated Weekend $3.2M, Estimated Cume $323.6M

Dragon continues its gentle descent as it creeps closer to Monsters year-ago numbers. (Next animated features up: Shrek IV followed by Toy Story III. Thank God Pixar doesn't make all those icky sequels like some animation studios we know ...)

Add On: Box Office Mojo details Dragon's progress:

... How to Train Your Dragon was off 38 percent from last Friday, and its total stands at $143 million in 22 days. Dragon had a bigger fourth Friday than Monsters Vs. Aliens did last year, and now trails Monsters by just over $10 million through the same point.

Slooowly closing the gap ...

Add On Too: Well, well. B.O. Mojo and the Nikkster have How To Train Your Dragon back at #1, declining a mere 19% weekend to weekend. (This might change by tomorrow, but still ... who could have imagined?)

El Dragono -- $20 million -- $158.6 million

Add On #3: Drat.

Superhero action comedy "Kick-Ass" won a tight contest at the North American box office this weekend, edging out "How to Train Your Dragon" and reversing the order from early estimates, according to final data released on Monday.

It was the second photo-finish in a row in the coveted race for the No.1 spot.

"Kick-Ass" made $19.83 million at U.S. and Canada box offices, compared to an earlier estimate released on Sunday of $19.75 million. "Dragon" made $19.63 million, but the previous estimate put the figure at $20 million.

Can't win 'em all.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No holidays, no nuttin' to goose the numbers.

And a general sense that March Is Over, and that May blockbuster season hasn't arrived yet, so April titles grab what audiences they're designed for, just for showing up:
The geek audience had staked out Kick-Ass for literally months, while Death had an urban audience...Looks like we'll now just have to be content with how well Dragon gets rediscovered on disk, by all the folks who were avoiding it the first time.

Tim said...

BIG NEWS UPDATE!!!

Nikki Finke has now revised her numbers, as has the LA Times, to show that Dragon most likely beat Kick-Ass, and has come in at #1! An animated movie that's been out four weeks has beaten Kick-Ass AND Death at a Funeral on their opening weekend!

Clearly the word-of-mouth has been huge for Dragon, which has hardly dropped at all for the last two weeks. Good that the public finally discovered the movie before it was too late, and will now be a financial success. Congrats to the crew of Dragon for making a truly great movie. Make some more, Dreamworks!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Going to see it for the third time tonight before its to late. This movie deserves to be seen on the big screen!

Steve Hulett said...

The reptile's got legs.

Anonymous said...

It's so sweet to see actual,real live moviegoers prove all the pundits and the tired "statistics" wrong for a change.

Anonymous said...

The reptile's got legs.

And Kick-Ass turned out to have been critically kicked...well, you know.
Which, like the great Pixar days (qv. Nemo and Cars), proves that a good animated with audience support can still come BACK to #1 as repeat comfort-food, after the long-awaited cult-audience opening doesn't quite prove to be the upset everyone thought it would be on Friday.
First time it's ever happened to Dreamworks, though. :)

Derrick said...

Congratulations!!!

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