“KICK-ASS” KICKS “DRAGON” OUT OF FIRST PLACE

For the second week in a row, the film that was listed at No. 1 at the box office when weekend estimates were released on Sunday had to change place with the film that was listed at No. 2 when final — and official — results were announced. With $19.83 million, Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass edged out Paramount/DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon with $19.63 million. It was unlikely, however, that Lionsgate executives were doing cartwheels or high-fiving one another to celebrate the victory. Most box-office forecasters had predicted that the film would earn around $25-30 million. By the same token, DreamWorks Animation execs must have been thrilled with their fourth-week result. After opening at the low end of predictions, Dragon has continued to breathe fire, dropping only slightly from week to week. (It dropped just 21 percent this weekend.) Moreover, Lionsgate controversially included revenue from 10:00 p.m. preview screenings on Thursday in its weekend total for Kick-Ass. In third place was the Tina Fey/Steve Carell comedy Date Night, which earned $16.7 million after a modest drop of 34 percent. It edged out the opening of Death at a Funeral starring Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, which took in $16.2 million. Little noticed was the performance of Avatar, playing in just 500 theaters in its 18th week but coming in 12th overall with $1,002,814, and sixth on a per-screen basis with $2,006. For the weekend, the top 12 films grossed $111,870,679, up 11.4 percent from last year’s $100,387,184 for the comparable week.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Kick-Ass, Lionsgate, $19,828,687, (New – includes Thursday Previews); 2. How to Train Your Dragon, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $19,633,320, 4 Wks. ($158,251,066); 3. Date Night, 20th Century Fox, $16,720,038, 2 Wks. ($48,666,799); 4. Death at a Funeral, Sony, $16,217,540, (New); 5. Clash of the Titans, Warner Bros., $15,385,491, 3 Wks. ($132,600,220); 6. The Last Song, Disney, $5,962,916, 3 Wks. ($50,187,855); 7. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?, Lionsgate, $4,098,898, 3 Wks, ($54,801,812); 8. Alice in Wonderland, Disney, $3,656,442, 7 Wks. ($324,131,301); 9. Hot Tub Time Machine, MGM, $3,490,471, 4 Wks. ($42,449,935); 10. The Bounty Hunter, Sony, $3,084,020, 5 Wks. ($60,261,888).