Weak-ass weekend for Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass almost got its ass kicked by a four-week-old dragon. The R-rated superhero movie based on the Mark Millar comic failed to reach even the $20 million-mark in its opening weekend, a massive disappointment considering the hype and positive reviews. Still, it managed to eek out How to Train Your Dragon by fewer than $200,000, meaning for the second straight week, the film predicted to win the box office on Sunday ended up not making the most money when the final total came in.
I can figure that it couldn’t have been just the money lost from theaters cracking down on under-17-year-olds that made Kick-Ass perform this poorly. No movie had bigger buzz this spring, but it must not have translated over from the fanboys to the general public.
- Kick-Ass - $19.8 M (weekend) … $19.8 M (gross)
- How to Train Your Dragon - $19.6 M ... $158.2 M
- Date Night - $16.7 M … $48.6 M
- Death at a Funeral - $16.2 M … $16.2 M
- Clash of the Titans - $15.3 M … $132.6 M
- The Last Song - $5.9 M ... $50.1 M
- Why Did I Get Married Too? - $4 M ... $54.8 M
- Alice in Wonderland - $3.6 M ... $324.1 M
- Hot Tub Time Machine - $3.4 M ... $42.4 M
- The Bounty Hunter $3 M … $60.2 M
Kick-Ass’ failure to attract the bulk of the audience left more for returning films such as Date Night and of course, How to Train Your Dragon. This also affected Chris Rock’s family comedy Death at a Funeral, the only other notable debut this weekend, which only came in fourth.
Consequently, the box office was down another 6 percent this weekend. It seems that theaters will just have to bide their time until the heal-all that is Iron Man 2 hits theaters in a few weeks.
