Dragons safe atop box office

How To Train Your Dragon may have been barely edged out of the top spot last week in the final count by newcomer Kick-Ass, but this past weekend there was no doubt who won the top spot in the box office: How To Train Your Dragon is staying strong despite being in its fifth week of release. It hauled in $15.35 million to run away with top box office honors.

The new J-Lo rom-com, The Back-Up Plan, showed the pop primadonna in work gloves still packed some punch, even if it was an off-week for box office; her new flick racked up $12.2 million to take second place with breathing room. Still, that’s only one third of the film’s $35 million production budget, which could spell disappointment.

Third place went to Date Night, which held on well by hauling in $10.4 million in its third week of release.

Warner Brothers bet on The Losers and looks to have lost, as the film couldn’t even scrounge up $10 million, though the low, $25 million production budget is sure to ease the pain. Kick-Ass was a bigger loser, dropping over fifty percent in its second week and finishing a shade behind The Losers. Still, the $30 million flick is already in profit mode, raking in $34 million to date.

Nothing else could even break $9 million, and with the Brenden Fraser family film Furry Vengeance, as well as the decidedly un-family film, the remake of the original A Nightmare On Elm Street, both in the hopper for this coming weekend, the box office landscape is sure to change dramatically, and soon.