STUDIOS REVISE WEEKEND FIGURES

Studio estimates for Sunday’s ticket sales were significantly off the mark for each of the two movies that opened over the weekend. Iron Man 2, which some forecasters had figured would set a new record, failed even to take in the $133.6 million the studio reckoned it would. With some families apparently concluding that it was not the kind of movie moms would be interested in seeing on Mother’s Day, Iron Man 2 actually wound up with $128.1 million. Box office estimates are based on actual sales for Friday and Saturday and an educated guess for Sunday. As it turned out, the movie, which earned $51.2 million on Friday and $45.8 million on Saturday, dropped to $31.1 million on Sunday. Nevertheless, the total represented the fifth-best opening of all time and the biggest in the history of Paramount, Hollywood’s first studio. Screenings in IMAX theaters generated $9.8 million, 8 percent of the gross, a new IMAX record for a 2D movie. But if Iron Man‘s total was overestimated because of Mother’s Day, the documentary Babies’ total was underestimated because of it. Playing in only 534 theaters, the film earned more money on a per-theater basis than any other film in wide release with the exception of IM2. Total ticket sales for Babies came to $2.15 million, 37 percent higher than the $1.57 million that had been estimated. Overall, the top 12 films together took in $170.8 million, up 19.7 percent from $142.8 million for the same weekend a year ago.

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. Iron Man 2, Paramount, $128,122,480, 1 Wk. (New); 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Warner Bros., $9,119,389, 2 Wks. ($48,479,560); 3. How to Train Your Dragon, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $6,680,374, 6 Wks. ($201,013,867); 4. Date Night, 20th Century Fox, $5,448,257, 4 Wks. ($81,002,725); 5. The Back-up Plan, CBS Films, $5,033,471, 3 Wks. ($30,103,940); 6. Furry Vengeance, Summit, $4,478,107, 2 Wks. ($122,100,064); 7. Clash of the Titans, Warner Bros., $2,503,251, 6 Wks. ($158,006,277); 8. Death at a Funeral, Sony, $2,308,743, 4 Wks. ($38,531,924); 9. Babies, Focus, $2,161,460, 1 Wk. (New); 10. The Losers, Warner Bros., $1,847,290, 3 Wks. ($21,496,907).