a byte of sci fi

Another week, another new movie in the Number 1 slot at the Box Office.  Last week, How to Train Your Dragon knocked Alice in Wonderland out of the top spot now this week the remake of Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans toppled Dragon.  Titans pulled in an estimated $61.4 million in receipts domestically, putting it well on the way to recouping its $125 million budget.  And it has not even had its foreign release yet.  How to Train Your Dragon slipped all the way to Number 3 in its second weekend of release, but it still had a respectable draw at $29.2 million for the weekend, bringing its domestic total to over $92 million.  That one also pulled in over $42 million from its foreign debut over the weekend bringing it to a healthy worldwide gross of nearly $135 after two weeks of release.  Alice in Wonderland slipped to the Number 5 slot after its fifth week, but has managed to surpass $670 million in receipts during that period.  Hot Tub Time Machine dropped to Number 6 in its second week.  Note that all of these numbers are estimates as of Monday morning and will change slightly when the final tally comes in.

You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

Dreamworks may have yet another hit on its hands as How to Train Your Dragon had a strong opening weekend and managed to knock Alice in Wonderland out of the top slot at the Box Office domestically this past weekend.  The 3-D animated movie pulled in $43.3 million in receipts in its debut in the States and tacked on an additional $8 million worldwide.  While that was a decent opening salvo, it did fall short of the opening weekend of Monsters vs. Aliens which opened from Dreamworks last year at this time with a take of $59 million.  It also has quite a ways to go to make up its $165 million budget.  But with the Easter weekend approaching, it should still have some good traction, though it will have to compete with the debut of Clash of the Titans.  Alice fell to the Number 2 slot domestically, with a $17.3 million take, though it still remained on top worldwide.  The Hot Tub Time Machine did little to steam up the Box Office in its debut as it only managed to climb to the Number 3 slot with $13.6 Million in receipts.  That one has a much more modest budget of $36 million, though, so it still has a chance of finishing in the black.

You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

Tim Burton’s updating of Alice in Wonderland held onto the Box Office for a third week in a row as the movie held tight to the Number 1 slot and tacked on another $35 million to its domestic total bringing it to an amazing $266 million so far.  And, the visual extravaganza has preformed even better overseas where it has added close to $300 million to the bottom line meaning that the movie has broken the half a billion threshold and is still going strong.  With these sort of returns, Disney will definitely get right to work on pumping out a stream of sequels.  Not so lucky over the weekend was new-opener Repo Men which got ravaged by the critics and only managed to claw its way to the Number 4 slot at the Box Office with just over $6 million in receipts.  This movie may only have a modest budget of $32 million, but it looks like it will not be able to make it to the black before it ends its theatrical run.  Avatar may be fading, but it still remained in the Top 10 after fourteen weeks of release as that one brought in another $4 million domestically.  Expect to see it disappear from the theaters in the next week or two, though, as the DVD release looms for April.  Also, it may make an encore run on the big screen this Summer.  You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

Alice in Wonderland continued to lure audiences down the rabbit hole for a second weekend as it easily grabbed the Number 1 spot at the Box Office and out-grossed the other four movies in the Top 5 combined.  The movie pulled in an estimated $62 million domestically bringing its total to more than $208 million.  If you tack on its foreign receipts, the movie is now at nearly $430 million worldwide and still going strong.  While it has little hope of matching Avatar’s record, it should vie for the honors as one of the top money-makers of 2010.  Avatar slid to the Number 7 slot this past weekend, though it still added another $6.6 million to that movie’s bloated grand total.  The Crazies dropped down to Number 10 in its third week, though that one has already eclipsed its $20 million budget with a total take of $33 million and it has not even had its foreign release yet.  Percy Jackson dropped out of the Top 10 this past weekend, though it has made $194 worldwide and should be considered a success.  You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

One additional byte of movie related news: Online ticket seller Fandango is testing a service that allows you to but a ticket online then they will send an image to your cell phone which the theater can scan to allow admission into the movie.  They are testing this in several markets and will expand it if it proves successful.