“Nightmare” takes box office in its sleep

The box office can sleep easy now that the spring season is over. Ironically, nightmare slasher Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street were the easy winners this weekend with $32.9 million, helping the box office to a 2.2 percent increase in anticipation of the jolt that will come from Friday’s Iron Man 2.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street - $32.9 M (weekend) ... $32.9 M (gross)
2. How to Train Your Dragon - $10.6 M ... $192.1 M
3. Date Night - $7.5 M … $73.6 M
4. The Back-up Plan $7.2 M … $22.9 M
5. Furry Vengeance - $6.6 M … $6.6 M
6. The Losers - $5.88 M … $18 M
7. Clash of the Titans - $5.85 M … $153.9 M
8. Kick-Ass - $4.5 M … $42.2 M
9. Death at a Funeral - $4.1 M … $34.9 M
10. Oceans - $2.5 M … $13.4 M

Returners How to Train Your Dragon and Date Night had strong weekends again. In fact, most films saw fewer than 50 percent drops in their weekend takes thanks to lack of competition these last couple of weeks.