UPDATED: Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

The Losers - After being betrayed and left for dead, members of a CIA black ops team root out those who targeted them for assassination.

The Back-up Plan - Single gal Zoe (Lopez) meets potential husband Stan (O'Loughlin) on the day of her artificial insemination. Despite the initial spark, the two lovers begin to wonder if they're taking the right steps to an enduring romance.

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Avatar
The Lovely Bones
Crazy Heart
The Young Victoria
Summer Hours

UPDATE: It appeared that "Kick-Ass" failed to take home the gold medal at the box office as "How To Train Your Dragon" returned to first place after four weeks in theaters.

But Sunday's box-office estimates aren't measuring up with new numbers pegging "Kick-Ass" as the No. 1 movie of the weekend with a $19.8 million haul. "How To Train Your Dragon" earned $19.6 million, a few strides shy of its previously estimated $20-million finish.

So "Kick-Ass" did as its title says and slew the dragon. It doesn't mean much since the numbers are still low, but the No. 1 crown is psychologically important to Lionsgate, which promoted the movie heavily with hopes of discovering a franchise. Joe Drake, Lionsgate’s co-chief operating officer, appears to still have hope. “Our marketing and distribution teams have brilliantly positioned it for a long and successful run,” he said in a news release on Monday.

(NY Times, MTV News)

Geez, I've had to update two box office results posts in a row. What's with the close calls lately?

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 How To Train Your Dragon $20.0 M

2 Kick-Ass $19.7 M

3 Date Night $17.3 M

4 Death at a Funeral $17.0 M

5 Clash of the Titans $15.7 M

6 The Last Song $5.8 M

7 Why Did I Get Married Too? $4.1 M

8 Hot Tub Time Machine $3.5 M

9 Alice in Wonderland $3.5 M

10 The Bounty Hunter $3.2 M

We may never truly understand the reason why "Kick-Ass" came in 2nd place with an estimated $19.7 million to the 4th week box office giant "How to Train Your Dragon" which came in 1st place again with $20 million.

Was it the marketing? Was it the hard 'R' rating? Was it the fact that the comic book isn't that well known to the general public? Was it Nicolas Cage's hairstyle?

The 'R' rating probably does hurt a bit, and it doesn't have the inflated 3D prices to help its box office numbers, but I figured it would have done at least $30 million. Maybe people weren't as excited about it as I thought.

And while Kick-Ass will still prove profitable for Lionsgate, the movie demonstrates the difficulty in translating online interest in a film to in-house cash. Another obscure comic-book adaptation, 2006's "300," enjoyed the same Comic-Con welcome and fan interest and opened with $70 million. So why did "Kick-Ass" not deliver on its opening weekend?

It wasn't for a lack of advertising - that's for sure. Posters and trailers galore were out for this film, nearly double than "How to Train Your Dragon." Hopefully good word of mouth will keep "Kick-Ass" as a strong contender for next week.

Even more surprising was "Clash of the Titans" getting it's head chopped off. While estimates had it losing to "Date Night" last week, it actually did come in 1st place. But now it has slid down to 5th with $15.7 million. No matter, the movie has made just over $250 million worldwide. Sequel? We shall see.

The remake of "Death at a Funeral" didn't do too bad. It came in 4th place with $17 million but don't expect it to hang out in the top ten for very long.
(Latino Review, USA Today)