Box Office - 'Titans' Dominates on Friday

While the weekend won't be the stuff of legend, it's a pretty good launch for Warner Bros.' Clash of the Titans, the studio's first major 3-D project, even though it's of the retrofitted variety. Adding in the $3 million Titans drew on Thursday night, the film now stands at nearly $30 million after Friday. Of course, it's not the sort of film you can see duplicating those efforts on Saturday and Sunday - because it's just not that great, particularly where a hiked-up 3-D ticket price is concerned - so it isn't likely to make another $60 million this weekend. It might do another $40 - $45 million, though, so a $70 million weekend isn't a radical estimate. You could say that's a big loss for 3-D, but you'd be wrong; remember, Avatar only made $77 million when it debuted, and even without those northeast weather concerns that weekend, it wouldn't have looked like it was christening a $750 million run in the US. Titans can't compare to that, though, and we all know it. The point is the advocates of 3-D exhibition - who are different than the devotees of the technology itself - will stay point to the percentages of 3-D dollars versus traditional ticket sales. Titans is far and away the leader this weekend, having more than doubled Why Did I Get Married Too, which looks like it's charting a course to around $30 million this weekend after $12.4 on Friday. Miley Cyrus' The Last Song, which actually opened on Wednesday and already had $9 million going into the weekend, picked up another $7 million on Friday. That's good enough for fourth place and it probably won't jump back up in the top three. How to Train Your Dragon, which is splitting some of the digital 3-D screens with Titans, did better than I would have expected on Friday, with $11 million. By Monday, it will be close to $100 million, which is a great recovery after a sub-par $43 million debut. Alice in Wonderland is in its final weeks in theaters, and crossed the $300 million milestone on Thursday. It's now within striking distance of the top 25 movies ever in US box office.