Box Office - 'Kick-Ass' Loses to 'Train Your Dragon'

Kick-Ass certainly didn't live up to expectations this weekend, managing just under $20 million at the box office, despite a lot of marketing in the past couple of weeks and mostly positive reviews. In fact, according to Box Office Mojo's early weekend numbers...it didn't even win. How to Train Your Dragon holds a slim lead - around $250,000 - over Kick-Ass, but those numbers could flip like they did last week when Clash of the Titans held on to number one by the skin of its teeth. There was no Saturday spike, which is highly unusual, so the final numbers may in fact tell a different story. The message, though is the same as last week, too: This isn't a good sign for Kick-Ass. Just as Titans should have won easily, there's no reason a new release with this much hype should lose to a month-old cartoon. Yeah, Dragon has 3-D screens, so that elevates the ticket price, but Kick-Ass had industry projections of around $30 million, which was just a tad higher than we estimated on Thursday. In fact, it was just a bad weekend all around...unless your name is How to Train Your Dragon. That film continues to impress in spite of slugging opening weekend numbers; how can a movie that made $43 million in its debut make $20 million three weekends later? That's an incredible amount of audience hold. This time around, it was another sub-20% drop for Dragon, which now appears headed for about $215 million or so. That certainly didn't look like the case after its opening weekend. And I suppose, if there's hope for Lionsgate with Kick-Ass, that's it: Maybe word of mouth will spread. For everyone to get paid ($30 million budget; $25 million distribution cost), it's almost profitable at $37 million around the world. After all, the distribution cost had to defray a ton of that budget, unless the accounting's funky, so the studio is really looking at a bit of P & A. So it's not a question of this film making money, but rather why it looks like it won't make more. No stars, maybe. Controversial 11-year-old, maybe. Superhero backlash, maybe. The breadcrumbs this leaves over the next couple of weeks will be worth paying attention to, I think. Death at a Funeral performed closer to expectations, even though it finished fourth. $17 million isn't bad in that case, not with a $21 million overhead and no movies in that demographic for a while. Funeral will wind up making at least twice its budget, and for Screen Gems, that's a win. Clash of the Titans dipped to number five, and Alice in Wonderland shot up to the #22 spot on the all-time worldwide box office list. It has about $20 million to go to crack the top 20, and it should be able to do that in a couple weeks at the most. The Top Five:
1 - How to Train Your Dragon ($20 million)
2 - Kick-Ass ($19.7 million)
3 - Date Night ($17.3 million)
4 - Death at a Funeral ($17 million)
5 - Clash of the Titans ($15.7 million)

Comments

[Adam]

Well, that sucks to hear.

[Krystal]

I really wanted to see Kick-Ass (especially because of Nic Cage & Hit Girl) but when I heard it was ultra-violent with lots of blood, that's what turned me off.

[Jace]

The level of profanity and bloodshed, especially from a little girl was an instant turn off. Wasn't even looking to see it, might rent it. I love stuff like Watchmen and Boondock Saints, but not when kids are involved. Just too far for mainstream America. The audience who would love it are too young to get in by themselves.

[Jace]

It's made for a pretty narrow demographic too...the adult swim crown. That's made up of kids who's parents don't give a shit what they watch, and the college group. Mom may drop the kids off at something called Watchmen or Wanted, but not one with profanity in the title.....and the college group is in the middle off f---ing finals!! We don't care about films this week of all weeks.

[El Doucheo Bago]

Kick-Ass was awesome, should have been number 1. Chloe is great!

[SEAN]

While I admit the demographic is small....

Kick Ass is a visual treat and unbelieveably worth it...

Trust me you want to see this film...if you dont on the big screen you will regret it

[Kurl]

You're missing out if you decide not to see this movie. I don't believe the violance is any more graphic than your average shoot em up action film. As mentioned, the only difference is there is a lttle girl who is responsible for most of it. It's discouraging to hear this because as Colin mentioned in his review the action/violance is really only a sidebar to what this movie really is. The development of the characters and how you as the viewing audience get pulled right in to the story is incredible. I saw basically every clip and trailor available before the movie came out and was happily surprised that those trailers and clips did not give away the direction this film was going to take me in at all. I saw this film last night and I have been replaying it in my head all day. To me that's the mark of a great movie. You really are losing out if you let the violence get in the way of seeing this.

[Chico Esqualea]

"slugging" opening weekend numbers? What does that even mean- are we talking baseball here??