Monday, April 19, 2010

And the box office champion this week is...unknown!


Again, the box office is too close to call between "How to train your Dragon" against "Kick Ass".

There was another photo finish at the weekend boxoffice, as a leggy holdover again appeared to outpace a big wide-opener.

DreamWorks Animation's leggy "How to Train Your Dragon" fetched an estimated $20 million to top preliminary domestic rankings. The Paramount-distributed 3D adventure piled cumulative coin to $158.6 million through four sessions.

Just a hair off the leader's pace, "Kick-Ass" -- a relatively inexpensive pickup for Lionsgate -- posted a weekend opening less potent than its name yet hardly a kick in the pants for the minimajor. The well-reviewed romp about a band of not-very-super superheroes rung up $19.8 million, landing on the lower end of pre-release expectations.

The No. 1 and 2 positions could change Monday, depending on final data from distributors. Another wide-opener -- Sony Screen Gem's R-rated comedy "Death at a Funeral," with Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence -- settled for fourth place with $17 million.

More positively, Fox's PG-13 comedy "Date Night," starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, used a tiny 31% drop from its week-earlier bow to ring up $17.3 million and grab third place in its sophomore session, and a $49.2 million cume. Warner Bros.' 3D action fantasy "Clash of the Titans" -- which overtook "Date Night" for No. 1 in the prior weekend's race to the wire -- finished fifth in its third frame with $15.8 million and a $133 million cume.

On an industry-wide basis, the $121 million weekend represented a 10% uptick from a comparable session last year, according to Rentrak.

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