CASH FOR CLASH! 3D ‘Titans’ Opens To Record $61.4M Easter Weekend & $64M Cume; Tyler’s ‘Marriage’ $30.1M, ‘Dragon’ $29.2M, Miley’s ‘Song’ $16.2M/$25.6M Cume

COMMENTS (93)

• btw, Dragon went down 8%…not 36% nikki. If it went down 36%, last weeks opening wouldnt have been so disappointing lol.

  Comment by Jon — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 10:56am PDT  Reply to this post

• Tyler Perry is an abomination.

  Comment by Teddy — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 10:58am PDT  Reply to this post

• Check your parenthesized facts Nikki. It was David Zucker’s Scary Movie 4 that had the old record for Easter. The original Wayans Bro. Scary Movie came out in July of 2000.

  Comment by Guinness Book of B.O. records — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 11:51am PDT  Reply to this post

• Dragon’s second-week percentile drop was far, far bigger than that of Avatar, the film that it’s allegedly better than by leaps and bounds according to its cuckoo fanbase of man-children. Since you people dragged Avatar’s good name through the mud by bringing it down to Dragon’s subterranean comparison level, I’m intent on being a reminding voice at every turn about the night and day disparity in cultural and financial significance between the two releases. Avatar is the wheel, and Dragon is the inflatable dartboard.

  The 165-million production has pretty much gone worldwide with only a few holdover territories to go, and so far those overseas grosses have been decidedly limp (42 mil). It’s on pace to earn less than the cumulative 336-million intake of Over the Hedge, another animated franchise hopeful from Dreamworks that instead became a one-and-done. The studio will react to Dragon’s uninspiring numbers in the same way: they’ll go back to the drawing board to come up with a property that can rival Pixar in the area of convincing childless adults that their new dopey cartoon is a must-see event. Whatever Dragon ultimately earns will amount to the spare change that James Cameron drops on the floor and doesn’t even bother to pick up when he’s fumbling through his pockets at a vending machine.

  Crow all you want about how magical or special the film is. There’s little correlation between the hard figures and that kind of adulation. You can do all the number spinning you want, but the reality is the theatrical profit margin will be minuscule relative to the expectations of the studio heads. Of course the dvd will be profitable. Every dvd is profitable. Resorting to the dvd defense is the final refuge of a straw-grasping fanboy apologist, and in this instance it’s not as applicable because the urgency of needing to see it in 3D should detract from those sales.

  Maybe you hardcore Dragon fans should do some L.Ron Hubbard tactics to beef up the grosses a little: meet up at a centrally located Chuck E. Cheese for pizza & cake, and then buy twenty evening-admission tickets apiece for Dragon at the nearest theatre. Afterwards, you can congregate in the lobby to quote your favorite anachronistic lines that are totally out of era from the movie’s medieval setting.

  Also, I have the key behind why Dragon fell so short of its aim of setting the world ablaze. The design of the eponymous winged creature stunk. Very nondescript except for the creepily phallic shape of its head. The movie was doomed to irrelevancy the moment those horrible conceptual drawings were signed off on. The lukewarm intake has to be partially attributed to a chunk of its primary target audience of extremely young children staying away, which is likely related to the main attraction of the film being so visually unappealing and uninteresting.

  Comment by Cartoons are for kids, stupid — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 12:03pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • You call yourself ” Cartoons are for kids, stupid”, and then go nuts defending AVATAR? Open your eyes- if 90% of a movie is CGI, than it IS a cartoon!( And that’s true of a growing number of these SPFX “blockbusters”- Jackson’s LOTR was, in terms of it’s combining CGI and live action, a direct descendant of Bakshi’s over-rotoscoped 1970′s “animated” version).The line between “animation” and “live-action” has been erased by CGI, and the only thing that matters is the quality of the final product.(Now if the STUDIO’S would grow a pair and let the animators explore more adult material, I’d be happy- but they’re more interested in dumbing-down live action, so I guess we’ll just end up with infantile films across the board…)

    Comment by cst — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 7:28am PDT  Reply to this post

    • I am just one person, but I am actually burned out on animated features to the point I am starting to call them cartoons. To me, hybrids are in a different category, and I don’t mind them at all. I appreciated Alice in Wonderland, for instance.

      Comment by mfan — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 8:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • “Very nondescript except for the creepily phallic shape of its head.”

    Time for your meds, Jimbob.

    Comment by Ryan S — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 7:57am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Oh dear, $2.6 billion at the box office and still some AVATAR boosters aren’t satisfied, and get awful touchy whenever anyone dares say anything remotely disparaging.

    For the record, CAFKS, nobody here has been comparing DRAGON to AVATAR, they’ve been comparing DRAGON to CLASH, and DRAGON is indeed superior to that weakly written, lousy-looking film—as AVATAR certainly is as well. If anything, DRAGON helps prove Cameron’s point that movies intended for 3-D from the beginning can look spectacular, while hasty post-conversion (like CLASH’s) has murky, unimpressive results.

    Comment by michael — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 8:29am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Thank you for addressing the craziness of Dragon fanboys. They make hard-core Twihards look like a picture of sanity. Besides, Dragon may have scored 98% at RT but its averige score is,well, averige, 7.8. So the incredible WOM in only in someone`s head. It has good WOM but incredible? Nah.

    And right on about the crappy dragon design. Buzz killer right there.

    Comment by addison — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 4:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Am I the only one who got a 10K BC vibe watching the CotT previews? We all know how awful that was.

  If only more people would see HTTM. Stinks that Greenberg still has yet to expand in my area.

  Comment by Alex — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 12:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

• CLASH was horrific. Such a waste. Everyone at WB and Legendary should be fired. Filmmaking isn’t just marketing…it’s story telling and CLASH had zero story. Logic was missing and the emotional arc of the characters was so forced it’s laughable.

  And the verdict is still out there on whether or not Louis Leterrier can actually direct. Maybe if the film was 25 minutes longer, the story and characters would have been better served but as is, it’s terrible. Save your money and wait for it on Redbox.

  Comment by Late-20's male — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 1:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Nikki,

  No offense, but you suck at math. How to Train Your Dragon was off 8.7% from last Friday, not 36%.

  Comment by Anonymous — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 2:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • It’s the estimated weekend drop-off.

    Comment by Anonymous — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 10:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• Three massive blockbusters in less than a year for Sam Worthington and still the vast majority of Americans have no idea who he is…

  Comment by College Student — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 3:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • That’s probably because he’s so freaking boring and unforgettable. There’s absolutely nothing about him or his performances that are memorable. He’s going to be stuck with the “Sam Borington” moniker forever. Or at least for a couple more years until he gives up.

    Comment by Syphant — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 10:33am PDT  Reply to this post

• Wouldn’t be so fast to proclaim this a $70m opening. Should not have turned $26.3m with the overnights where they were; word of mouth is lousy.

  Everyone knew that WOM would be really bad for the 3D because the conversion is botched. Question is how hard does that hit on Saturday & Sunday?

  Comment by Undercut — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 3:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Still hope all of you see She’s out of my league — its a great and funny movie.

  I cannot wait for Knight and Day, but is anyone concerned that the similar Killers opens three weeks earlier?

  Comment by tom — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 7:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• FYI.. The first “Why Did I Get Married” also starred Janet Jackson. In fact, all of the characters in the first film also appear in part 2.

  Comment by AngieGo — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 9:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I really enjoyed Clash of Titans. In fact this one had more kick than the campy original did. Now an interestng thing about Yahoo movie shown that Alice in Wonderland was suppose to open here but still that didn’t happen. Nor did the whimpy kid movie either. But Clash did but not get thier facts right yahoo is another thing.

  Comment by chuck — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 9:38pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I can’t wait to see this movie! Sam Worthington is awesome!

  Comment by Annie — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 9:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• More amazing is that the Green Zone dropped out of the top 10 with no comment from anyone writing for this site. A catastrophic failure that merits some attention from a site focused on the biz.

  Comment by Joe Melnick — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 10:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• “1. Clash Of The Titans from Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures debuted to $26.3M Friday and $19.5M Saturday from 3,777 theaters. Poor word of mouth appears to have accounted for the downturn.”

  OR it was competing for the same audience with the NCAA Final Four and lost. They should’ve pushed Clash back another week.

  Comment by College Student — Saturday April 3, 2010 @ 11:48pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Those greedy studio executive Bast_rds who decided to convert Clash of The Titans (in two weeks time) into 3D just to ripp off more money from consumers..
  *beep* YOU!!!

  James Cameron said, that this might backlash and will damage 3D industry… amd it’s happening.. WOM is Awfull
  Stupid Greedy Lazy C_nts..

  Seems Cameron was right, again.

  People better go and watch How To Train Your Dragon in 3D!!
  movie is Awesome

  Comment by roberto — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 12:24am PDT  Reply to this post

• “Poor word-of-mouth accounted for the downturn”? Are you sure? It’s pretty typical for franchise pictures, sequels, remakes, etc. that are geared to teen or adult audiences to decline in their 2nd day of release. This decline was far less noticeable than, say, the -41.8% drop Twilight: New Moon suffered on its 2nd day. True, it was a little steeper than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Star Trek actually went up on Saturday slightly last year apparently due to good word-of-mouth. But it seems like anticipation was probably higher for Clash than for Star Trek or Wolverine, which were both franchises thought to be mostly out of gas at that point. I think we can assume at worst that Clash of the Titans is getting average word-of-mouth, not great or terrible.

  Comment by Eric S. — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 12:55am PDT  Reply to this post

  • No, actually it’s getting terrible word of mouth.

    Comment by debbie — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 2:00am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Cume projections haven’t contracted 15% so far for nothing. Final Four or not, opening patterns or not, this thing is tracking well below what was being called out on Friday.

    This should surprise no one. Anyone who has the misfortune of seeing the 3D print is going to want their money back and is going to have very negative things to say about the experience. Even if you saw it in 2D (as I did) there’s nothing like a 300 here to recommend.

    Releasing it against the Final Four was also not the most intelligent move in the world, of course.

    Comment by Undercut — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 5:56am PDT  Reply to this post

• 3D stands for $3 more.

  Comment by Mcat — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 12:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

• well avatar proved you didnt need a really well-developed script or movie to gain sales as long as it was hyped with 3D.

  And now the flood cometh.

  be careful what you wish for cameronites.

  for all of you cameron zealots who loathe the current 3D onslaught, maybe if cameron had produced & directed a movie that had more acting balls and less special effects the other studios would have had to raise their acting street cred too.. BUT CAMERON DIDNT. HE WENT CHEESE.

  so take your medicine & stop your complainin. you all sound like spoiled brats.

  first your prayed for god to show up and now you hate his children. oh frakin well.

  dolts & zombies.

  Comment by lu-E — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 2:08pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Just a hunch but Clash seems like the type of flick that could have strong appeal with unsophisticated hayseeds in the flyover territories.

  Comment by Harold — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 3:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

• What a busy Easter. Strong Good Fridays helped offset the black hole that is Easter Sunday for a super good weekend with every film hitting their target demo.

  1. CLASH OF THE TITANS – With a $61M OW (sure to be lower given WB’s over-zealous estimates) CLASH also had a sturdy $16256 PTA. However, 3D accounted only for 55% of the gross which is the lowest yet for a 3D film, but then again the 3D was poorly reviewed and their were few screens available (I saw it in 2D and only thought one or two scenes might have been enhanced by the blurry last-minute post-conversion. At least ALICE was planned to be in 3D reducing the blurry effects). However, WB must have been hoping for $70M with the high hype and lack of competition, also films that give audiences the first taste of summer tend to do higher (ie. FAST & FURIOUS). Marketing can open a film, but word-of-mouth carries it and so far its been just so-so. Most action Easter openers OW account for 40% of the gross and CLASH needs higher than that to get it’s planned sequels greenlit. Only time will tell. With only one new film opening next weekend, it should lessen the usual post-easter weekend blow.

  2. WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO? – In a surprising second place (though it might get swapped to third when actuals come in), Tyler Perry scored with his second highest opening weekend ever. With his non-Madea films growing stronger and strong, Perry has been a goldmine for Lionsgate and a $65M finish seems like a safe bet. Combine Perry’s track record, his first sequel to a fairly high grossing original, and Janet Jackson, it really isn’t surprising at all.

  3. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON – With a great hold (the highest of the weekend and it would’ve been even higher if it weren’t for the Sunday), DRAGON should make a minimum of $175M which is fantastic with it’s strong overseas sales. Having a grasp on all 3D screens and IMAX ones until mid-May practically, DRAGON should soar high.

  4. THE LAST SONG – Miley Cyrus proved her box office potential outside of the Hannah Montana franchise, but the results seem a bit shy compared to February’s Sparks’ adaptation, DEAR JOHN. However, that fizzled out unlike Sparks’ other films that opened small and had great legs. So can SONG still have those legs? Probably not, but $50M is all but guaranteed which is a great number.

  5. ALICE IN WONDERLAND – With a sharp drop in 3D screens, the 50+% drop was inevitable, but then again, it’s had high drops all along. Yet crashing through the $300M mark, Disney is still ecstatic. Roughly $330M finish.

  6. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE – A fair 40% drop still doesn’t make up for it’s lackluster OW, a lukewarm $40M finish seems likely for this supposed MGM-savior.

  7. THE BOUNTY HUNTER – Now really trailing FOOL’S GOLD, a $60M-ish final is likely given DATE NIGHT and THE BACK-UP PLAN coming out soon.

  8. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID – Never have a seen a kids pic crash so fast, but given its big opening weekend and cheap production ($15M), a sequel is probable even though the OW will account for roughly 40% of the finish. Likely strong DVD sales will support this.

  9/10/11 – SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE/SHUTTER ISLAND/GREEN ZONE – Three films finding various grosses played out similarly because each lost about or more than 50% of it’s theaters. LEAGUE should end with a middling $30M before finding it’s DVD audience; ISLAND should wrap up with a good $126M; GREEN ZONE is deep in the red with a disasterous $34M finish.

  *OUTSIDE OF THE TOP 10 BUT NOTABLE*

  12. GHOST WRITER – Maybe Summit wanted this just for it’s catalog because in barely-wide release, it’s not doing this film any favors. Should struggle to $13M. Shame because it is a really good film even though I am totally against what Polanski did. Still worth seeking out if it’s playing near you.

  13. AVATAR – Finally with a sub-$1M weekend, albiet 15K, AVATAR got hit by losing pretty much all of its 3D playdates to a shitty post-conversion CLASH.

  14. GREENBERG – Failing to capitalize on the so-so gross last weekend, Focus doesn’t seem to look to expand GREENBERG any further for a not even $4M finish at this rate.

  15. OUR FAMILY WEDDING – After successful PTA’s, I guess Perry stole all of this film’s audience. Now $20M seems out of reach, but that is still probably a profit for this little flick.

  16. CHLOE – See GREENBERG but replace Focus with SPC, the shittiest distributor around.

  17. REPO MEN – Talk about when it crashes, it burns, in week 3, REPO doesn’t tumble, but bellyflops 82.5%. YIKES!

  18. DRAGON TATTOO – Succesfully expanding, this should give encouragement to the US remake that is forthcoming.

  20. HUBBLE 3D – Enthralling audiences and finding its week-to-week rise again, this will be a good alternative to IMAX theaters to replace DRAGON with when it starts to wane before IRON MAN 2 comes out.

  19/?? – REMEMBER ME/RUNAWAYS – Success after Twilight? With these two films, neither Pattinson nor Stewart proved it. REMEMBER ME will cap off at $19M and don’t hold your breath for RUNAWAYS to expand next week after it’s poor showing that should wind up with about $2.5M

  Next week DATE NIGHT is the sole new release so it will be a good week to expand movies in limited, but I’m not in charge of that so… til’ next week – Ryan

  Comment by Ryan — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 5:41pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Hey Ryan, if you have a blog I would definitely read it every week. I am not a Robert Pattinson fan, but at least his film will show a profit as it’s doing better overseas. Still, in terms of his box office drawing power, this was supposed to play to his strengh, so studios are more likely to see it as a failure than a push.

    Comment by mfan — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 8:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Thanks for the compliment mfan. I am thinking about a blog since I do movie reviews/interviews as well, but just haven’t found the time yet to make it perfect and worthwhile for readers.

      I agree with you on Pattinson. I briefly mentioned this on my post last week that I wouldn’t cross Pattinson off of my list yet for a leading actor, but I would not trust him with a non-Twilight tentpole picture yet either. Give it another film or two and then the verdict will be told. For Stewart though, I do not feel as if she has anything to prove in terms of acting because unlike Pattinson, she had quite a good filmography before TWILIGHT. I feel as if she can easily lead a film, but just because she is a part of this mega-grosser series it doesn’t mean she alone can open another movie big just by her name alone. What it does mean though is that she is a quality actress, unlike Pattinson just yet.

      Comment by Ryan — Monday April 5, 2010 @ 4:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Sorry, my comment has nothing to do with the movie.. since you guys have pretty much covered everything..
  But who is this ‘Jim’ character… and why does he feel this strong urge to leave these stupid and extremely patronizing comments defending the film on every single message..
  To quote one of the many cheesy dialogues from your favourite film, Jim: “Hold your storm!!”

  Comment by your king :p — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 8:25pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The Last Song only cost 20 million to make. It’s already raked in over 25 million in the first 5 days. It’s all PROFIT from here.

  Meanwhile crappy Clash cost 125 million to make and only raked in 64 million.

  Comment by Reality Hurts — Sunday April 4, 2010 @ 10:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• CLASH is still a dreadful film, and nothing to be proud of. My friends went to see it yesterday and complained greatly about the lousy 3D – so bad they had to frequently take the polarized glasses off because the images were so blurry. Everyone came out with headaches.

  This movie definitely gives 3D a bad name – we should force Alan Horn to watch it 50 times with the damn glasses!!!

  Comment by Larry Brooks — Monday April 5, 2010 @ 12:23am PDT  Reply to this post

• BTW – has anyone noticed how idiotic Sam Worthington looks in the film? Every actor has long hair, but he’s got the same buzz cut from Terminator 4 and Avatar. This guy is no actor; but he is a Diva with all the talent of a slab of pine.

  Comment by Larry Brooks — Monday April 5, 2010 @ 12:28am PDT  Reply to this post