'Iron Man 2' bests 'Robin Hood'

By Sarah Sluis

Robin Hood bowed this weekend in second place, earning $37.1 million. The medieval action movie was no match for the second week of Iron Man 2. The sci-fi blockbuster dropped 59% in its second week to $53

million, easily beating Robin Hood. However, both sets of theatres were equally packed. Iron Man 2 brought in $12,000 per theatre, while Robin Hood averaged out at $10,000 per theatre. With almost 900 more locations, however, Iron Man 2 was able to rack up a $15 million lead over Robin Hood.

Romantic counterprogramming to the action fare also did well this weekend. Letters to Juliet led the pack with $13.7 million. Along with the undisclosed amount earned during last week's sneaks, this

modestly budgeted romantic drama should do quite well for Summit. It also cements Amanda Seyfried's star power. By comparison, the more established star Jennifer Lopez opened The Back-Up Plan to the tune of $12.2 million a few weeks ago. Seyfried did have the help of Vanessa Redgrave, however, to bring in Moms and older viewers (teens probably don't know who she is), so she can't take all the credit for the strong opening.

Just Wright, starring Queen Latifah, opened to $8.5 million with a per-screen average that matched that of Letters to Juliet. Both averaged around $4,600 per screen, a sign that Fox Searchlight made a wise decision when it pared the size of the release to 1,800 theatres.

Among returning films in the top ten, Date Night had one of the smallest drops, 26%, to $4 million in its sixth weekend. The comedy has earned $86 million in six weeks, higher than would be expected for a movie that opened at $25.1 million. An older-skewing audience and strong word-of-mouth have propelled this film ahead of similar comedies. CG animated How to Train Your Dragon added another $5.1 million in its eighth week, falling just 23%. The movie will probably take a big drop next week with the opening of DreamWorks Animation movie, Shrek Forever After.

On the specialty front, IFC Films' Looking for Eric and Daddy Longlegs both debuted in the $8,000 range, in one theatre apiece. Princess Kaiulani opened to a $5,500 per-theatre average in 33 locations for a total of $184,000.

This Friday, SNL skit-turned-movie MacGruber will open opposite America's favorite green monster in Shrek Forever After.