Weekend US box office report: Elm Street's Nightmare is a dream come true
Freddy Krueger rules the US box office, as Brendan Fraser's latest, Furry Vengeance, dies a very quick death...
It might be a nightmare for all those teenagers, but for Warner Brothers, it's a dream come true. Thanks to a midnight opening record for the horror genre and a staggering $15.8 million on Friday alone, A Nightmare On Elm Street sliced and diced its way to the top spot in this weekend's box office. For the whole of the weekend, Freddy and his disposable teenagers brought in $32.2 million.
Meanwhile, the weekend's other wide release, Summit Entertainment's Furry Vengeance, opened up to a very tepid $6.5 million weekend. It cracked the top five (in fifth place), but just barely. If 2008 was the summer of Brendan Fraser, then 2010 is shaping up to be just the opposite, with two failed launches so far this season.
Among the holdovers, How To Train Your Dragon picked up second place this weekend, thanks to another $10.8 million. It's going to surpass $200 million sometime soon this week, and it might even out gross Kung Fu Panda to be DreamWorks' most profitable non-Shrek release in the process! If not now, then definitely soon.
Date Night took third place at this weekend's box office. Stop me if you've heard that before. The feature has dropped only about 27 percent since past weekend, bringing in $7.6 million. The flick has quietly picked up nearly $74 million, despite never having been at the top of the box office. Just like How To Train Your Dragon, it has benefited from consistency. Steve Carrell and Tina Fey just might make $100 million yet!
Meanwhile, The Back-Up Plan is showing all signs of being a standard romantic comedy. Front-loaded box office, steep fall. Last week's second place film dropped to fourth this weekend, based on a box office take of $7.2 million. Meanwhile, The Losers drops slightly less (from fourth to sixth) and holds onto a little more of its box office, percentage-wise. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and company took home another $6 million, which is a little stronger than the normal return for an action-comedy.
Meanwhile, Clash Of The Titans, thanks to 3D, continues to rake in the money. It drops to seventh, of course, but the flick picked up $5.98 million this weekend, pushing the film over $150 million in the US. Not bad for bolt-on pop-up-book special effects.
Kick-Ass dropped again this weekend, sinking from fifth to eighth. The flick did pick up $4.45 million this weekend, but hasn't lived up to the Internet hype inspired mostly by the name, the cool trailers, and the book's premise. Kind of like Snakes On A Plane, but a bit more profitable in the US.
Death At A Funeral drops to ninth this weekend, taking in 4 million bucks. So far the remake has significantly out-grossed its originator, bringing in $34 million in the US thanks to a wide release and publicity the original didn't get. Rounding out the top 10 is Oceans, the first in a couple of risky documentary releases. The $80 million flick from Buena Vista has only grossed $13.5 million (thanks to $2.6 this weekend), though I doubt Focus Features' Babies cost anywhere near that amount.
Speaking of Babies, it comes out next week. But there's also a little picture coming out called Iron Man 2. Maybe you've heard of it? It might not be as good as the first Iron Man, but it's still going to be hugely popular and will make no less then $500 million globally. Bank on it. Even if it's no Iron Man, it'll still probably be great. It's just that the first movie raised our hopes so much, and it's really hard to top a great opener.
