DreamWorks' Dragon roars back into the box office

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Posted by Patrick Sauriol on Sunday, April 25, 2010

Five weeks into its run, and after four weekends of second and third place finishes, How to Train Your Dragon has recaptured the top spot at the box office. While the DreamWorks animated picture opened in first place at the end of March, Dragon finished third overall in its second and third weekends. Last week it moved up a spot to #2 and now this week it's back in first place. So how does a movie reverse its downward trend in the top ten while still losing the number of screens it's playing on? The answer is simple: good word of mouth.

How to Train Your Dragon enjoyed good reviews but it appears that the valuable water cooler talk amongst parents is paying off. While the picture has lost about 400 screens since its opening, it's percentage of gross is only falling about one-fifth each week. Made for an estimated budget of about $160 million dollars, the movie has now taken in about $355 million worldwide (including $178 from North American screens.) The last DreamWorks film that had a similar run was Shrek which opened to $42 million back in 2001; Dragon opened to $43m. I'm betting that How to Train Your Dragon 2 should be in development before the end of the year.

After an absence of five years from U.S. movie audiences, Jennifer Lopez still has enough cache value to open a movie. J.Lo's rom-com The Back-Up Plan opened at second spot with $12.2m, giving the Jennifer Aniston crowd something new to watch until Sex and the City 2 opens next month. In third place is Date Night, still making money for 20th Century Fox ($10.6m new, $63.4m total.)

Kick-Ass was last week's champ; now it's the fifth-highest movie in the land. One could infer that means it's going to be a loser for its investors but that would be a mistaken impression to make. Made for a budget of around $30 million, Kick-Ass has now grossed $34m stateside and another $21m from worldwide placements. Bottom line, it's a money maker for Marv Films and Lionsgate. Don't cry for Kick-Ass, Argentina. As for a sequel...well, your guess is as good as mine (no, not you Mr. Mark Millar.)

Clash of the Titans grabs another $9m (total $145.6m), Death at a Funeral falls three spots to #7 ($8m new, $28.4m total) and Disneynature's Oceans opens in eighth place with $6m earned during the weekend (and another $2.4m made from the picture's Earth Day showings.)

In ninth place is The Last Song in its last top ten showing ($3.7m new, $55.3m total) and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is in #10 with another $2.2m added to its gi-normous domestic take of $327 million dollars.