'Date Night' unseats 'Clash of the Titans'

By Sarah Sluis

Date Night triumphed this weekend over action epic Clash of the Titans, which many assumed would take the top spot for the second week in a row. A strong performance from Date Night, coupled with a steeper- than-average drop for Clash, clinched the close 1-2 finish ($27.1 million for Date Night, $26.8 million for Clash).

I think the steep drop of Clash is a good thing for the industry. 3D has proved to be hugely profitable, but most critics (and some audiences) seemed to think that the last-minute 2D to 3D conversion of Clash looked poor. While a 56% drop is consistent with male-driven action movies, it also indicates that 3D doesn't guarantee long, profitable runs.

[Update: Clash ended up in first place when the final numbers came in, with $26.6 million to Date Night's $25.2 million]

How to Train Your Dragon did even better in its third week. Ticket sales for the 3D animated movie tapered off just 12%, giving the movie a $25.3 million weekend. Strong weekday sales from Spring Breakers have brought the cumulative gross to $133.8 million in three weeks.

Tyler Perry's How Did I Get Married Too dropped a heavy 62% to $11 million. Perry's movies typically draw strong opening weekend crowds and have high drop-off rates.

Another movie with a Spring Break audience, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, fell just 22% to $4.1 million. Miley Cyrus-starring The Last Song dipped a manageable 37% to $10 million, and Alice in Wonderland steadied its fall this week with a 31% drop to $5.6 million.

Vivendi's Letters to God cracked the top ten with a $1.2 million. Though David Nixon, the producer of the inspirational Fireproof, produced and directed the movie, it was not nearly as successful. Its $1,300 per-screen gross was far less than the $8,000 per-screen Fireproof boasted, a true apples-to-apples comparison since both movies opened on around 800 screens.

Specialty release Everyone Else, a strongly-reviewed German-language movie about a couple's unraveling after they meet another couple just like them...only better, had the highest per-screen average, $11,400, of any film released this week.

This Friday, the superhero action-comedy with a bite, Kick-Ass, opens alongside Death at a Funeral, a remake of a British film that is cast primarily with black actors, including Chris Rock.