This weekend at the box office offered a wealth of options: overstuffed sequel or overlong prequel? Amanda Seyfried in Verona's court or Queen Latifah on the basketball court? It's enough to make you curl up with a bottle of expensive vodka and your cockatoo as company -- and wouldn't you know, that's what most moviegoers preferred to do. Here are the weekend receipts.
1. Iron Man 2
Gross: $53,000,000 ($212,160,000)
Screens: 4,390 (PSA: $12,073)
Weeks: 2 (change: -58.6%)
Iron Man 2 can't hope to have the legs and surprise factor of its predecessor, but for such a front-loaded sequel -- especially one with buzz this mixed -- a drop of 58.6% in the second weekend falls into the "eh, coulda been worse category." I mean, look what it's already cumed. Tony will be fine, even if Pepper is already freaking out about the figures.
2. Robin Hood
Gross: $37,114,000 (new)
Screens: 3,503 (PSA: $10,595)
Weeks: 1
And speaking of "coulda been worse"...though it's by no means a smash, and it won't even get within spitting distance of its budget domestically, Robin Hood opened juuust big enough for no one to get fired over at Universal -- yet. Will it sink in the weeks to come? Oh, sure. But who's gonna be paying attention then?
3. Letters to Juliet
Gross: $13,750,000 (new)
Screens: 2,968 (PSA: $4,630)
Weeks: 1
Dear Juliet,
Did you have any idea that Gael Garcia Bernal was in this movie? No, really -- and he's kind of the best part, too. Maybe if we'd put him in the ads, we could have lured in some more of those indier-than-thou girls who thought my movie was just mall-chick fluff. Oh well.
XOXO
Amanda Seyfried
4. Just Wright
Gross: $8,500,000 (new)
Screens: 1,831 (PSA: $4,642)
Weeks: 1
Just Wright is the first time Queen Latifah's really had to carry a movie on her back since 2006's Last Holiday, and that one opened to $12 million. Siphon off a million each year since to account for Latifah's waning draw power, and this is where you might expect to end up.
5. How to Train Your Dragon
Gross: $5,120,000 ($207,764,000)
Screens: 2,620 (PSA: $1,954)
Weeks: 8 (change: -23.4%)
This DreamWorks production has hung around for 8 weeks, but it's about to find itself overtaken by its studio stablemate Shrek. Still, at least there's the inevitable themed wedding to look forward to.