How to Train Your Dragon Wins The Weekend

The animated film How to Train Your Dragon opened well with $43.3 million over the weekend. The Dreamworks Animation production has been loved by critics and audiences and opened right within the range of industry expectations. I thought it had the potential to do better though, as inferior family films have been able to approach or exceed $50 million. There were also the increased ticket prices that went into effect this weekend which could have contributed to larger numbers.

Is it the first sign of 3D fatigue? I doubt Dragon was hurt at all by that, considering it had such exceptional reviews and the 3D has been praised. It just wasn’t a Pixar film so it wasn’t going to open with record numbers. It should see strong holds over the coming weeks based on the great word of mouth and no other competing family films entering the marketplace. It will be losing some 3D screens though to Clash of the Titans. That movie will probably be the biggest test yet of whether the 3D craze has started to hit a wall.

Hot Tub Time Machine opened in 3rd with $13.7 million. That fell under most expectations which were in the mid-upper teens. It’s tough to push out an R rated comedy, and a bunch of screenings were used to create word of mouth. Maybe the concept was just too silly that some still didn’t give it a chance despite generally good reviews and the good audience response. Maybe opening it while the NCAA Tournament was ongoing was a bad move. Its long term prognosis is iffy. Generally movies such as this start strong and drop-off, unless a buzz is created from the word of mouth. I’m not sure there is enough momentum right now for that to happen.

Alice in Wonderland continues to push forward and will pass by $300 million late this week. This was the first time Avatar has fallen out of the top 10 since it released in mid-December. It still made $2 million and has taken in more than $740 million in the US.

1- How to Train Your Dragon $43.3 ($OPEN)
2- Alice in Wonderland $17.3 ($293.1)
3- Hot Tub Time Machine $13.7 (OPEN)
4- The Bounty Hunter $12.4 ($38.8)
5- Diary of a Wimpy Kid $10.0 ($35.8)
6- Shes Out of My League $3.5 ($25.6)
7- Green Zone $3.3 ($30.4)
8- Shutter Island $3.2 ($120.6)
9- Repo Men $3.0 ($11.3)
10- Our Family Wedding $2.2 ($16.8)