Clash Sets Titanic Easter Record
April 6, 2010
Easter weekend resulted in records being broken as Clash of the Titans became the biggest Easter opener of all time. The strength of that film and others in the top five helped the box office pull in $177 million overall. That's 38% more than last weekend and 14% more than the same weekend last year. 2010 has now pulled in $2.83 billion, a 10% advantage when compared to 2009's pace. Double-digit growth is amazing and if it can keep this pace up, we could be in for an amazing ride this summer.
While Clash of the Titans wasn't able to live up to the very high end of Thursday's expectations, its opening was still impressive. Over the weekend it pulled in $61.24 million. Including Thursday's evening shows it has $63.89 million after three and a half days of release. This crushed the previous record for best Easter opening, which was held by Scary Movie 4 at $40.22 million. In fact, it was the second best April opening ever. The film's reviews are weak enough to suggest that it won't have great legs, but not so bad that it will likely collapse next weekend. Additionally, it started well enough that it should be fine no matter what happens from now on.
Why Did I Get Married? started out even faster than expected, and a lot of people thought it would be a serious hit. Its opening weekend it made $29.29 million, which was Tyler Perry's second best opening weekend and almost 40% more than the original opened with. Additionally, the film's reviews are nearly as strong as the first film's and better than average for the writer/director. By this time next week it could beat its predecessor at the box office, while it will not have trouble showing a significant box office.
How to Train Your Dragon actually held on better than expected, down just 34% to $29.01 million over the weekend. However, due to stronger competition it was pushed into third place. That said, at this pace it should have little trouble earning $150 million at the box office, while $175 million isn't out of the question. This is a little lower than original expectations, but still enough to keep the studio happy. Meanwhile, if its reviews translate into an Oscar nomination (or several) it could have a long run on the home market as well.
The Last Song's opening day matched Wednesday's prediction nearly perfectly. Despite abysmal reviews, it held on a little bit better than expected, earning $16.01 million over the weekend and $25.40 million in total. At this point, unless the studio spent an unacceptably high amount of money making the movie, it will show a profit. It should have no trouble matching expectations. Is this enough to say that Miley Cyrus will have a career outside of the 'Tween market? I'm not willing to go that far right now, but it is an encouraging sign.
As expected, Alice in Wonderland crossed $300 million on Thursday. On the other hand, it fell a little faster than expected over the weekend, adding $8.21 million over the past three days for a total of $309.73 million after 31 days of release. This is a massive total, especially for a spring release, and I assume there's someone working on a sequel as we speak.
Moving onto the sophomore class, Hot Tub Time Machine just missed the top five with $8.07 million over the weekend and $27.91 million after two. That represents a decline of just over 42% and that suggests its word-of-mouth is strong. This could help it reach $50 million domestically, while it should become a bigger hit on the home market.
Filed under: The Last Song, Hot Tub Time Machine, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, Clash of the Titans, Why Did I Get Married Too?