Dragon soars back into the top spot

Uhoh, looks like all the negativity surrounding the violence in Matthew Vaughn’s dizzying Kick-Ass has had a dramatic impact on its box office bow.

Despite phenomenal buzz and plenty of critic love (apart from one shocked and appalled Roger Ebert), Kick-Ass opened with a disappointing $19.7m this weekend. Small consolation, though, that it at least recouped two thirds of its $30m budget.

Currently hovering in second place, the comic book mash-up lost out to a resurgent How To Train Your Dragon , which swept up a further $20m and reclaimed the number one spot.

Kick-Ass fared only marginally better than last week’s almost-number-one Date Night, which was last week beaten to the top spot by mere pennies by Clash Of The Titans (despite early numbers deeming Date Night the victor).

Date Night got one over on Clash this week, though, hitting third place with $17.3m, while Clash slid to fifth with $15.7. Sandwiched in between the two of them was opening Neil LaBute comedy Death At A Funeral , which earned itself a respectable $17m.

A throng of Miley Cyrus fans ensured The Last Song remained in the top ten (now in at sixth) with a diminished haul of $5.8m, while Why Did I Get Married Too? dropped to seventh place with $4.1m.

Hot Tub Time Machine continued its underwhelming performance with a teeny $3.5m (proving that the ‘80s really are dead), while third 3D flick Alice In Wonderland added $3.5m to its money pile. The Bounty Hunter rounded out the top ten with $3.2m - no doubt its last appearance in the charts.

Next week comic book flick The Losers makes its entrance. Will it fare any better than Kick-Ass ? Check back next week to find out.

Update: Hurrah for Kick-Ass ! As with last week's close-run-last-minute-surprise-turn-around (in which Date Night lost out to Clash ), the final figures for this weekend's box office have revealed that Kick-Ass is the real box office titan.

Early figures had How To Train Your Dragon as the victor, but in a last minute coup, Kick-Ass beat the CGI animation by the slimmest of slim wins. Final tally: Kick-Ass took $19.8m, Dragon took $19.6m. Phew!

Will you be going to see Kick-Ass ?