'Dragon' rises above 'The Back-up Plan' and 'Losers'

By Sarah Sluis

In an impressive fifth-week feat, How to Train Your Dragon ascended to number one over the weekend with a $15 million gross and a $10,000 per-screen average. There's two lines of reasoning to explain the rise. One is word-of-mouth. Anyone who's seen the movie (judging from my own reaction and Facebook status updates) has been blown away by the impressive visuals, cute characters and great story. Second is the overcrowded slate during Dragon's release. The movie released as 3D Alice in Wonderland was winding down, and a week later 3D Clash of the Titans opened, crowding the 3D market. Because this movie is so quality, I'm glad to see audiences rewarding the film by voting for it with ticket sales.

The Back-Up Plan was at first place on Friday before settling in at second place with $12.2 million. The romantic comedy finished roughly in line with expectations. This kind of lackluster performance is the reason people think women don't go to movies--when really, they're saving their movie dates for Sex and the City and Twilight.

The Losers had a disappointing #4 debut. The movie was expected to open above $10 million but came away just shy with $9.6 million. Given its

withering reviews, this movie got what was coming to it.

Oceans, the Earth Day release from Disneynature, brought in $6 million over the weekend for a four-day cumulative gross of $8.4 million. The nature film opened below last year's Earth, which earned over $8 million its opening weekend and $14 million from Wednesday to Sunday. However, this type of film tends to play well over several

weeks. Last year's Earth may have benefited from a Wednesday Earth Day, which gave the movie more time to build through the weekend.

Last week's limited releases Exit Through the Gift Shop and The Secret in their Eyes held extremely well. Exit Through the Gift Shop dropped 12% while adding three locations. Each of the eleven locations earned $13,500, the highest per-screen average of the week, for a total of $149,000. The Secret in their Eyes went up 120% from last week going from 10 to 33 locations. Its per-screen average of $11,000 was the second-highest of the week.

This Friday, the environmental comedy Furry Vengeance will open wide opposite the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Aim low this weekend with 'The Back-Up Plan' and 'The Losers'

By Sarah Sluis

Audiences looking for entertainment this weekend will be hard-pressed to find a new offering with rave reviews. Leading the pack is CBS Films' The Back-Up Plan (3,280 theatres), a tired romantic comedy

about a woman (Jennifer Lopez) who falls for the perfect guy just as she becomes pregnant with a child conceived with a sperm donor. When I reviewed the movie, I concluded that there's "nothing to see for anyone who's already viewed their fair share of formulaic romantic comedies." Still, for those that enjoy that kind of film, the experience will be "a not very good and yet painless waste of time," as A.O. Scott of the The New York Times so aptly put. The movie is expected to open in the teen millions. A debut on the low end of expectations could put it behind How to Train Your Dragon, which should also post a teen-million figure.

An action-adventure film with an intriguing cast and not much else, The Losers (2,396 theatres), also comes with a caveat emptor. FJI critic Ethan Alter cautions that "the real losers are those folks tricked into forking

over good money to see this dumbed-down adaptation of the popular comic book." The adaptation follows a group of CIA special operatives who are ordered killed by someone in their own agency. They escape death and turn to wreaking vengeance on the hit man. The cast includes action alums such as Zoe Saldana (Avatar) Chris Evans (Star Trek) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen). Unfortunately, they seem stuck in a movie that seems disorganized and extensively re-worked. This movie is expected to barely cross over into the ten-million range.

After opening yesterday, Earth Day, Oceans will go into the weekend on 1,206 screens, a high number for a nature documentary. The film has already earned $54 million overseas, boding well for its U.S. release. Last

year's Disneynature Earth Day release, Earth, earned $8.8 million its opening weekend on a similar number of screens, so Oceans will probably open in line with those numbers.

The specialty releases this week are a mixed bag. Daniel Eagan despised the "sloppy, thoughtless" documentary Behind the Burly Q (NY), which tries to glorify burlesque while glossing over the drug and sexual abuse that goes along with the profession. Those in the mood to see people with questionable morals would be better served by viewing the "gaggle of (take your pick) hugely rich, greedy, sneaky, promiscuous, self-serving, coke-indulging, desperate denizens of the contemporary art world" in Boogie Woogie (NY). Then, out of left field, there's Paper Man (NY/LA), an uber-quirky tale of a man with an imaginary superhero friend.

On Monday we'll see if the relatively weak films The Back-Up Plan and The Losers were able to bring in their "teen million" figures or if fourth-weeker How to Train Your Dragon tops one or both movies.