Box Office - 'Back-Up Plan' Leads Slow Friday

A weak Friday at the box office helped The Back-Up Plan, which can now run commercials boasting that it's "America's number one live-action comedy on Friday." The Jennifer Lopez rom-com took in $4.2 million, and might push toward $13 million by the end of the three-day stanza, but that won't be enough to win the weekend outright. More than likely, How to Train Your Dragon, as we discussed on Thursday, will take the crown four weeks after its last stint at number one. That's a rare feat, unique going back at least ten years. But the DreamWorks 3-D flick has been mighty consistent, and will be close to $180 million by Monday, meaning $200 million is in the bag. Not bad for a film that opened with $43 million and sent the company's stock plummeting. It's in second place right now, but Saturdays have been very good to Dragon, and should push it past Back-Up Plan heading into Sunday. The week's other new release, The Losers, is the second straight comic book movie to falter. By comparison, Kick-Ass looks like a stout box office king...at least on opening weekend. The Losers was absolutely in neutral Friday, earning only $3 million and change. So don't count on this making over $10 million this weekend, which probably means a domestic total around $25 million, maybe $30 million if all goes well. As for last week's winner, Kick-Ass dropped about 65% of last Friday's audience ($2.8 million), and will drop below $10 million this weekend. We think it's a fantastic film, but it's clearly not one anyone wants to see. In fact, it will finish behind Date Night, which will sit at a respectable $60 million-plus after Sunday's receipts are counted. So the box office is in essence taking the weekend off before spiking next week for Nightmare on Elm Street and shooting into the stratosphere in two weeks with Iron Man 2. We'll have the final numbers tomorrow, which should only really look good for How to Train Your Dragon.