After last week’s crowded box office release schedule, things returned to a more manageable level this weekend, with America choosing a lycra-clad Will Ferrell and Jon “I was in Napoleon Dynamite, please stop saying I’m still playing that role” Heder as their new comedy heroes. Blades Of Glory, the tale of competitive skaters took home the top prize with $33 million.
That put it healthily ahead of the only other truly wide release – in fact, wider by a few cinemas – Disney’s new CG ‘toon Meet The Robinsons. Sadly, faced with an almighty shrug from the press, this latest Mouse House effort debuted to $25 million, which won’t exactly find the studio executives ordering extra champagne this morning, especially as their last stab at 3D CGI, Chicken Little, managed $40 million a couple of years ago.
But the two main new arrivals pushed 300 down to third, with Zack Snyder’s Spartans dining on $11.1 million. That said, with $180 million in the US alone and the movie holding the title of the top-grossing movie so far this year (at least until Johnny Depp and Spider-Man show up), no one’s going to worry very much. And it’s still healthier than those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who, despite their impressive opening, tumbled 62% and three places down to fourth in their second week. Their total currently stands at $38.4 million, which will buy a lot of pizza but isn’t exactly the Cowabunga second week they were likely hoping for. They and Meet The Robinsons will surely be counting on the upcoming Easter break proving good for the kid film market.
At fifth, Wild Hogs just won’t give up the road, clocking up $8.4 million this weekend and driving up to becoming the year’s second-highest grossing movie of the year so far with $135 million. Mark Wahlberg’s new action thriller Shooter, meanwhile, dropped to sixth place, with $27.2 in the bank so far. It hovered just above Sandra Bullock’s twisted time drama Premonition, which nabbed $5.1 million this weekend for a $39.4 million total.
Drifting to the bottom of the charts we find The Last Mimzy, dropping like a rock to eighth place with $16.2 million so far, The Hills Have Eyes 2 falling 59% into ninth with $15.8 million taken in total and, lingering at 10th, Reign Over Me, with audiences failing to appreciate Adam Sandler’s latest serious effort, leaving it to scrape together $13.3 million after two weeks on release.
