Box Office

From ew [excerpt] How to Train Your Dragon won the weekend box office race with ease, grossing $43.3 million for the three-day frame. (A solid 11.5 percent of that cash came from 187 IMAX theaters.) The DreamWorks Animation film, which has won rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, may well have bowed with a far bigger number had it not been sandwiched between two other high-profile 3-D releases. The Viking-era-set action-adventure had to share 3-D screens with Alice in Wonderland, which in its fourth weekend in theaters managed to claim $17.3 million of box office gross, a respectable 49% drop that leaves the Tim Burton-directed film on the precipice of $300 million total. Dragon should enjoy solid grosses during the upcoming week with kids across the country out of school for spring break, but it’s likely to get squeezed next weekend when the highly anticipated Clash of the Titans rolls into 3-D theaters with a vengeance.

Hot Tub Time Machine bowed to an estimated $13.6 million for its opening weekend, good enough to claim third place. The R-rated ’80s nostalgia fest starring John Cusack drew in a crowd mostly over age 25, playing strong on the two coasts and in college towns, while underperforming in the South. The movie, from director Steve Pink, generated a B from Cinemascore, a response that doesn’t necessarily portend a strong second weekend. Surprisingly, The Bounty Hunter, which debuted last weekend in third place, held in well its sophomore session, dropping only 40% for an additional $12.4 million. The Jennifer Aniston-Gerard Butler-starrer has now grossed $38.8 million total. Diary of a Wimpy Kid suffered from Dragon competition. The well-reviewed film fell 55% in its second weekend to $10 million and a fifth-place finish. The movie’s two-week take now stands at $35.7 million.

She’s Out of My League landed in the sixth spot in its third weekend with another $3.5 million and a total gross of $25.6 million. Green Zone took in $3.3 million; total gross for this expensive Matt Damon-starrer stands at only $30.4 million after three weekends. The Leonardo DiCaprio-Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island earned another $3.2 million for a six-week total of $120 million. Repo Men landed in 9th spot with $3 million. The Jude Law-Forest Whitaker-starrer has grossed only $11.3 million after two weekends. Our Family Wedding rounded out the top ten with an additional $2.2 million. The film has earned $16.7 million in three weeks.