RANK	TITLE	APRIL 16-18	APRIL 9-11	% CHANGE	# OF THEATRES/ AVERAGE	# OF WEEKS	TOTAL	BILL SAID
1	Kick-Ass	$19.8M	New	New	3065 $6.4K per screen	1	$19.8M	$22.0M
3	How to Train Your Dragon	$19.6M	$24.9M	-21%	3825 $5.1K per screen	4	$158.3M	$18.6M -25%
3	Date Night	$16.7M	$25.2M	-34%	3380 $4.9K per screen	2	$48.7M	$15.6M -38%
4	Death at a Funeral	$16.2M	New	New	2459 $6.6K per screen	1	$16.2M	$20.0M
5	Clash of the Titans	$15.4M	$26.6M	-42%	3753 $4.1K per screen	3	$132.6M	$14.6M -45%
6	The Last Song	$5.9M	$9.8M	-39%	2767 $2.2K per screen	3	$50.2M	$5.9M -40%
7	Why Did I Get Married Too?	$4.1M	$11.0M	-63%	1859 $2.2K per screen	3	$54.8M	$4.4M -60%
8	Alice in Wonderland	$3.7M	$5.3M	-31%	2024 $1.8K per screen	7	$324.1M	$3.4M -35%
9	Hot Tub Time Machine	$3.5M	$5.4M	-35%	2308 $1.5K per screen	4	$42.5M	$3.5M -35%
10	The Bounty Hunter	$3.1M	$4.2M	-27%	2475 $1.2K per screen	5	$60.3M	N/A

Generally in this column, I estimate what each film will collect at the box office during the Popcorn Period* for the purpose of trading on the Cantor Exchange, but I won’t be doing that today. The Exchange was open for mock trading but the practice session has now ended. Cantor expects to receive final regulatory approval on April 20^th and the site will be open for real money trading shortly thereafter. That’s right, any day now you will be able to trade movie futures contracts for real. Remember, your friendly neighborhood box office analyst is always here at FilmGo offering trading tips, so come back often for all of my box office predictions. Trading during the practice period was incredibly fun and I did really well. Over the six months that I traded I was up 150%. I turned $10,000 virtual dollars into $25,000 virtual dollars. I’ve posted my portfolio up until the last day of the practice trading so that you can look at it. It will show all the positions I held when the Exchange stopped trading and my gain/loss history from October 1^st 2009 when I began.

Blood soaked, violent superhero flick Kick-Ass opened in second place with a solid but unspectacular $19.8M. This was lower than most industry expectations but very close to my $22M prediction. The film has received great reviews from most critics but the R-rating restricted a good portion of the comic series fanbase from coming out to see it. The film was mostly supported by men between ages 18-30 but had no crossover appeal into other demographics. Realistically, an R-rated superhero film starring teenagers is a hard sell to adults. It’ll be interesting to see how the film performs in the weeks ahead. Word of mouth is very positive but I highly doubt that it is going to help. My guess is that Kick-Ass will be in for some ass kicking declines in the weeks ahead and will perform better on DVD and cable. 

Coming in fourth for the weekend, comedy remake Death at a Funeral starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan collected $17M, close to my $20M call. Death was in significantly fewer theatres than any other film occupying the top 5 and had the best per screen average in the top 10 with $6.9K per screen. The film has received mixed reviews but may display decent legs in the coming weeks. Look for a decline of about 40% next weekend and for Funeral to have a shot at making more money than Kick-Ass during round two. 

The real box office story comes from two holdovers, How to Train Your Dragon and Date Night. Dragon experienced another terrific hold, slipping just 20% from last weekend adding another $20M to its overall box office which now stands at $158.6M. The film managed to slip into first place in its fourth outing while fellow 3-D film, Clash of the Titans fell to fifth in its third weekend. Dragon (like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar) proves that audiences will continue to support a 3-D film as long as it is a good movie. Studios have to realize that not every film will perform because of the added dimension; the product still has to be worthwhile. With a ton of 3-D films hitting multiplexes in the next few months, don’t expect them all to perform well. I’m talking to you Piranha 3-D and Step Up 3-D. 

Coming in third for the weekend was Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey. The film dropped a small 31% collecting another $17.3M bringing its total to $49.2M after 10 days. I expected a good hold for the film (read my review), but Date held even better than my forecast of a 38% decline. 

To see how the rest of the top 10 shaped up and how my other predictions for the weekend fared, check out the chart below.

Be sure to come back Thursday for my predictions for this weekend’s new releases Oceans, The Back-up Plan and The Losers.

Follow me on Twitter for box office updates throughout the week.

 

*The Popcorn Period – The settlement date for all movie contracts takes place approximately four weeks after a film has been released in theatres. It is during these 4 weeks that a film will collect money at the box office. If a film makes $50M at the box office during these 4 weeks, the contract will cash out at $50. I refer to this time frame as the Popcorn Period.