'Rango' lassoes a first-place finish

By Sarah Sluis

This weekend's big winner was Rango, which finished the weekend with $38 million, nearly twice the gross of the competition. Attendance was actually higher than last year's How to Train Your Dragon, which earned $43.7 million thanks to 3D surcharges. For an animated movie, a surprising amount of the audience was above 25: 54%, which is more than one would expect for a film that has the greatest appeal among kids.

In second place, The Adjustment Bureau garnered $20.9 million, carried along by reviews that praised the movie as an adult action-romance that didn't go for the lowest common denominator. It paid off: 73% of the audience was aged 30 or above. Those kinds of numbers spell another payoff for Bureau--a long shelf life, typical for movies skewing older.

The teen fantasy-romance Beastly had a respectable debut, finishing third with $10.1 million. Star power may have had something to do with it. The movie was delayed a year, and just so happened to release just weeks after star Alex Pettyfer made his action-hero debut in I Am Number Four. Enough time for him to get a small following among the teen beat? I think so.

The same cannot be said for Take Me Home Tonight, which wrapped production way, way, back in 2007. Though critic Ethan Alter concluded "there's no glaring reason why [the movie] was benched for so long," in terms of quality, the marketing team may have run into trouble finding a way to generate excitement about this 80s throwback comedy. The comedy finished in a sober eleventh place with $3.5 million. All the Aqua Net in the world couldn't give this movie a lift.

After its Best Picture win and major-category sweep at the Oscars, The King's Speech actually dipped a bit, 11%, to $6.5 million. However, Monday through Thursday the movie overperformed compared to the week before, so perhaps audiences were out catching newer adult fare, like The Adjustment Bureau, instead. The historical drama stands at $123 million, and weeks more of 10% drops could bring it closer to the $150 million mark. The only Oscar nominee/winner to improve from last week was Inside Job, the recipient of the Best Documentary Oscar. The indictment of the financial industry went up 94% to $65,200, adding to its theatrical total of $4.1 million.

In its fourth week, Cedar Rapids added 99 theatres for a total of 235, adding another $815,000 to its $3 million plus total. Happythankyoumoreplease premiered slightly soft, with a per-screen average a light but respectable $15,000.

This Friday, Rango will face competition from the animated Mars Needs Moms. Likewise, Beastly will have to contend with another teen-oriented fantasy romance, Red Riding Hood. Finally, Battle: Los Angeles will offer up some fresh sci-fi action.