'Clash of the Titans' reaches box-office summit

By Sarah Sluis

Clash of the Titans had a smashing debut with $61.4 million, bolstered by 3D ticket sales. The Greek God-inspired action tale brought in the highest Easter weekend opening ever. Still, it's disappointing that a movie that was converted to 3D at the last minute can reap the same spoils of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon, which went through the more time-consuming (but better-looking) process by being authored in 3D from start to finish.

Despite a less-than-stellar opening weekend that caused DreamWorks shareholders to take notice and push the stock price down, How to Train Your Dragon had a strong second weekend, dropping just 33% to $29.2 million. The charming children's film should continue to do well as more school-age kids go on Spring Break.

Finishing second, the sequel Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? opened to a strong $30.1 million, $9 million more than the 2007 original. The dramedy drew an audience that was heavily black, female, and over twenty-five. Perry should be happy too: it's the second-highest debut for the prolific filmmaker. Madea Goes to Jail, the first of the two films he released in 2009, holds the honor of his highest open, $41 million.

Disney's The Last Song, which opened on Wednesday to take advantage of the first wave of Spring Break crowds, added $16.2 million over the weekend to come up with a five-day total of $25.5 million. I'm already checking star Miley Cyrus' IMDB profile to see what she'll do next as she tries to develop her career and mature her image while keeping her status as tween idol.

Alice in Wonderland had its first drop over 50% this weekend, earning $8.2 million in its fifth week--a far cry from its $116 million opening weekend. The lack of 3D screens steepened its fall. Before the movie's release, many exhibitors were against Disney's plan to release the movie on DVD just twelve weeks after its theatrical release, but its diminishing grosses make the benefits of a prolonged theatrical release negligible.

Breaking Upwards, a tiny indie movie that received positive reviews, earned $15,000 on one screen in New York City, boding well for its expansion next week to L.A. The movie cost just $15,000 to make, and already made it back in first-week ticket sales.

This Friday, Steve Carell and Tina Fey will have a wide-open box office to debut their comedy-adventure Date Night, the only major release of the week.

No bailout for record-breaking 'Fast & Furious'

By Sarah Sluis

The automobile industry may be in decline, but the automobile? Never. In the highest opening of the year, and the highest April opening ever, Fast & Furious earned a whopping $72.5 million this weekend,

surprising industry experts, who had never seen anything bigger in April than the $42 million opening of Anger Management six years ago. The film was expected to open in the $40-50 million range, but instead brought in an estimated $20,950 per screen in its record-breaking finish. The opening weekend also bests the entire box-office gross of the previous sequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The return of the original star Vin Diesel no doubt helped, but the robust performance of the film could also be viewed as an impact of the recession. While home entertainment competes with the theatre box office, the very fact that seeing a movie involves getting out of the house could work in the industry's favor during a period when many of the unemployed are stuck at home looking for a job. I'm curious to see if theatre owners see a lift in attendance Monday through Friday, as unoccupied workers seek some diversion during the week.

Below Fast & Furious, Monsters vs. Aliens earned a little more than half the amount of last week, $33.5 million. The 3D film will likely remain in the top ten for several weeks to come, and should taper off its drop as 2D screens are removed from the run and profitable 3D screens remain.

The other new picture of the week, Adventureland, came in at number six to earn a light $6 million. Opening on just 1,862 screens, the comedy didn't have the presence of Greg Mottola's previous film, Superbad.

Overture's Sunshine Cleaning broke into the top ten in its fourth week of release, adding 312 screens to its 479-screen run and earning $1.8 million. The star power of Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, as well as a marketing campaign that alluded to the black comedy's Little Miss Sunshine roots, have filled theatres, despite its small run.

The rest of the returning films dropped between 38-58%, a reasonable range. Two week-old releases The Haunting in Connecticut (#3, $9.5 million) and 12 Rounds (#9, $2.3 million) dropped the most, while comedy I Love You, Man (#5, $7.8 million) retained audiences with just a 38% drop. Sci-fi thriller Knowing (#4, $8.1 million), romantic spy movie Duplicity (#7, $4.3 million) and family film Race to Witch Mountain (#8, $3.3 million) rounded out the top ten.