Horror fans welcomed back Freddy Krueger to the big screen this weekend as the Platinum Dunes remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street slashed its way to a dreamy $32.2 million in ticket sales at the North American box office. The only other new release, the Brendan Frasier family comedy Furry Vengeance, was dead on arrival. The Fredster aside, the movie scene was marking time until the much-anticipated Friday release of Marvel’s Iron Man 2.
Produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company, the $27 million remake of the Wes Craven thriller took advantage of the pre-summer movie season slump by debuting on a huge 3,332 screen count with product that is know by practically everyone. Nightmare’s reviews were horrific, which is only of note since the original Elm Street actually received strong notices when it opened 26 years ago. What is more eye-raising is the drop that occurred on Saturday, which was approximately 33%. The estimated drop by the studio for Sunday from Saturday is even worse: 45%.
True, horror films tend to bring out most of its audience on opening day (the film pulled in approximately $17 million in its first day, which includes the $1.6 million from 12:01 am screenings on Friday morning), so a sizeable Saturday drop was to be expected. But considering the toxic word-of-mouth audience members, not critics, are leaving on Internet forums, Freddy’s return may be very short-lived. Whether it becomes a distant memory or not by next weekend, Warner wasted no time in announcing that a 3D sequel is already in the works.
In second place was Dreamworks’ box office hit How to Train Your Dragon with another $10.8 million in estimated sales to bring its total up to $192 million. Dragon should pass the $198 million grossed by the studio’s Monsters vs. Aliens last spring within the next week or so. Depending on how the film withstands the first wave of big summer films over the next few weeks, Dragon could also wind up surpassing the $215 million domestic haul of 2008’s Kung Fu Panda to become the studio’s biggest animated hit outside of the Shrek franchise which returns to screens for a final bow in approximately three weeks.
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are comfortable being in third place. The network they have their television shows on seems to be permanently stuck there, and their theatrical hit Date Night has occupied the third spot in the top ten for three weeks now. The Fox comedy added an estimated $7.6 million in sales (off only 27%) this weekend to help bring the overall domestic haul to the $74 million mark. The film still has a chance to finish near the $85-90 million mark.
The head-scratcher of the weekend has to be the acceptable (41%) drop experienced by the other horror film in the market, Jennifer Lopez’s The Back-Up Plan, which placed fourth for the weekend. The film brought in an estimated $7.6 million in sales, bringing its ten-day total to the $23 million mark. If you know of family members or friends that are planning on seeing this film in the theater, you may wish to stage an intervention.
I would say another intervention-worthy film would be Summit Entertainment’s Furry Vengeance which stars two actors who obviously were blackmailed into starring in this: Brendan Frasier and Brooke Shields. But since the movie only pulled in an estimated $6.5 million from a wide 2,997 screens, I’m thinking that there is no need to. After the box-office failure of January’s Extraordinary Measures and now this, you have to wonder how long it will be before Frasier goes begging the studios for another Mummy…or Encino Man…film to be made.
Two Warner action flicks commandeered spots six and seven. The word-of-mouth from those who did make it to The Losers last weekend was solid as the movie had a decent hold from last weekend’s soft opening. Off only 36%, the Joel Silver production added $6 million to its coffers to bring its ten-day total to the $18 million mark. The studio’s Clash of the Titans added another $5.8 million to its total, which now stands at $155 million.
Continuing its fast fade in eight place was Lionsgate’s comic-book comedy Kick-Ass which once again dropped 53% to bring in an estimated $4.45 million to bring its total to the $42 million mark. Overseas, Hit Girl and Big Daddy have brought in an additional $30 million in sales. In ninth spot was another fast fader, Screen Gems’ Death at a Funeral, down by half to $4 million to bring its overall total near the $35 million mark. Closing out the top ten while dropping a steep 57% from last weekend was Disney Nature’s Oceans with $2.5 million for a new total of $13.4 million.
Next week, the summer movie season begins in a big way with Iron Man 2 which should be playing on any conceivable surface an image can be projected on. Don’t be surprised if Mr. Stark & company gross twice as much as the remainder of the top ten combined. It will be fun trying to predict how high Iron Man 2 will fly which you can do in the next round of our interactive Weekend Box Office Prophet Game launching on Tuesday.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
