Box Office - 'Dragon' Opens With $43 Million

Although it made $10,000 per screen, How to Train Your Dragon still has to be considered something of a slight opening weekend disappointment. In one fewer theater and with the benefit of higher 3-D ticket prices, the movie made a whopping $20 million less than the same studio's Madagascar: Escape to Africa. Viewed another way: Only two movies that opened in more than 4,000 theaters made less.

If this were an $80 million movie, that'd be one thing, but Train Your Dragon reportedly cost over $150 million before P & A, meaning a $43 million start isn't anything for DreamWorks to crow about. Kind of a shame, because the movie is both entertaining and the most effective use of 3-D in an animated film in this new era for that technology. Of course, $43 million was far and away the best figure of the weekend, but it probably means Dragon will have a very, very short run at the top with Clash of the Titans arriving next Friday. The drops are always worth paying attention to with animated films; there's not much in this category for the next few weeks so it might gravy train some money that way, but I doubt it can make back its budget in the US alone.

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Box Office - 'Train Your Dragon' Will Win, But...

Even though 3-D ticket prices ballooned this weekend in some theater chains, How to Train Your Dragon isn't enjoying a windfall. Oh, it's still going to make good money over the next couple of days, but it's not one of those opening weekends that looks augmented by higher prices. I guess if you're DreamWorks, the trouble is, these numbers actually do reflect people paying $3 - $5 more about half the time.

On Friday, Dragon did about what predicted on Thursday, and with a $12 million start, it's looking like a $40 million weekend or thereabouts. Saturday is usually the big day for new animated films because there are two or three more convenient showtimes for parents. So $12 million on Friday becomes $16 - $20 million on Saturday. However, we made our prediction based on what was at the time an incomplete theater count. This thing's in over 4,000 houses, which is about 800 more than what I used to figure its $40 millionish weekend the other day. Again, that's certainly not bad as a raw number, but DreamWorks spends way too much on its animated features, and if this really did cost $160 - $180 million, $40 million with 4,000 theaters - half of which are 3-D - is not all that great.

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Movie Review - 'Hot Tub Time Machine'

Hot Tub Time Machine Starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke Directed by Steve Pink Rated R

The phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" is nonsense. You may judge anything you like, especially if you're American. It's what we do. Besides, there are cases where cover judgmentality serves you pretty well: Krispy Kreme doughnuts probably aren't healthy for you; even if Secret is strong enough for a man...guys, would you use it? Another such example is Hot Tub Time Machine. The title tells you so much but reveals so very little. Five little syllables, and you pretty much have a handle on what's happening. You know it's a hot tub that has the power to send someone back or forward in (or maybe through) time. Now, you will likely either reject that idea completely or fall to your knees and rejoice that someone finally had the common sense and decency to combine the tried and true time travel movie premise and a frickin' hot tub. And no matter which one of those camps you fall into, you'd be absolutely right. If, in your opinion, a movie with a title so stupid only opens the doors to a movie that's even more asinine, there's very little evidence to suggest you missed the mark. Conversely, if you think this is a great idea for a ridiculous comedy, well...it is. And all you had to do is judge the book by its cover. Three longtime friends figuratively go back in time to the remote ski lodge where they spent some of the best weekends of their lives. Why? Because they've just spent one of the worst weekends of their lives. Adam (John Cusack) came home to an empty house. Well, almost empty - his nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) had been bunkered in Adam's basement for who knows how long playing video games. He was there, in fact, when Adam's girlfriend took all her stuff out of the house. "Was that what all the shuffling was," Jacob asks, barely looking up from his laptop. Nick (Craig Robinson) was once a promising musician, but now he works at a pet grooming store called, embarrassingly, 'Sup Dawg. But that's better than Lou (Rob Corddry), who drove home drunk and forgot to turn off his ignition after he closed his garage door and starting singing along to Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home." Next thing he knows, Lou wakes up in a hospital bed with Adam and Nick listing the many reasons Lou actually has to try to kill himself. To lift Lou's spirits, they all decide to return to the point where they were their coolest, which takes on new meaning after a drunken hot tub party. Yep, they've been transported back to Winterfest '86, only because they actually attended the event the first time around, Adam, Nick, and Lou are their past selves, younger, thinner, worse hair. Jacob had accompanied them on the trip to the ski lodge, so he's back in 1986, too, even though he wasn't born yet, so he's kind of the shepherd of the group, trying to keep everyone on point so they can all return to the present safely.

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Box Office - The 'Dragon' Breathes Fire

Alice in Wonderland was very strong for just about 14 days. This week, its numbers have dropped off considerably, meaning any showdown with How to Train Your Dragon won't be worth watching. Whereas Alice averaged about $6 million a day last Monday and Tuesday, she could only register about $2.7 million this week. So it's slightly more than a 50% drop, and that should be the tune this weekend, as well.

There's plenty of competition for Alice because its appeal is so broad. Clearly, the DreamWorks cartoon has the best chance to unseat it, since it's taking some of those 3-D screens and DreamWoork 'toons always start hot. Add the tacked-on 25 - 30% for 3-D tickets and Dragon ought to do very well, indeed. In fact, because the 3-D in this film is actually worth mentioning - which hasn't been true of most animated films - the percentage of 3-D ticket sales might actually be higher than normal. Monsters vs. Aliens debuted with nearly $60 million. I think that's significantly more than we'll see with Dragon, which is getting a smaller pool of theaters to start with. But given the way the 3-D trend has effectively been a box office steroid for good hitters, I think a mid-forties return isn't out of the question.

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Jump in: New 'Hot Tub Time Machine' Clips

Trailer Addict has come through again, with a full buffet of clips from next weekend's Hot Tub Time Machine. MGM is pushing this movie pretty aggressively, especially considering the company is in so much debt. That may get resolved fairly soon, by the way; we'll update both the ongoing battles at Metro and Lionsgate later on this weekend.

If you've seen the trailers for Time Machine, then most of these clips won't be brand new to you; parts of all of them have made appearances there or in one of the TV ads. But you do get to see more of the intarctions between John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, and Clark Duke, the butt of a running stream of jokes about how he's a girl. That ought to be fun. I don't know if we'll get any Hangover kind of breakout here, but MGM would sure be happy if that happens. Take a look at the clips to see if you're more motivated to see it, less motivated, of if you're...um...the same motivated as you were before.

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