Box-Office Report - Week of 25 March 2011

Talk about sucker punches. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" proved its box-office strength last week by surpassing its main foe,"Sucker Punch",  at ticket sales. Let's take a look at where the new and old releases stand right now :

• Quite surprising, first place in the money race was occupied in force by the sequel to the hit family comedy, with a week-end gross of $24.4M. 
• Second place went to Zack Snyder's teenage-girls-in-a-mental-institution-rebellion movie, with a weaker $19M debut.
• Coming back for more at #3 was the Bradley Cooper-Robert De Niro movie "Limitless" with $19M over three days, bringing its total to an impressive $41.3M (and to think I doubted their marketing strategy). 
• And at #4, "The Lincoln Lawyer" holds steady dropping only $3M this week to a $11M gross over the week-end and a cool $29M total. Considering the Matthew McConaughey starrer had a budget of aprox. $40M, it looks like its going to recoup most of it during its domestic run.
•  "Rango" takes a steeper dive, from #2 last week to #5 this week with a minor three-day gross of $9.8M, although the total earnings reached an impressive $106M. It's not huge by Pixar standards, but it's still decent for its $135M budget.
• The big and loud "Battle: Los Angeles" crumbled like one of the buildings in the movie, falling from #3 to a less comfortable #6 with $7.6M worth of ticket sales during the week-end. This brings the sci-fi epic to a weak $72.6M total. With a budget of $70M, it has achieved the goal of covering its costs, and is now headed for profit, but , it's still a weak domestic run. I'm sure the studios expected better, but word-of-mouth probably killed this one.
• "Paul" is also turning out to be a bad investment. Down to #7, with a $7.6M week-end and a two-week total of $24.6M on a $40M budget, it's unlikely that the sci-fi comedy will turn a profit.
• "Red Riding Hood", "The Adjustment Bureau", "Mars Needs Moms" all dropped one spot each, in perfect symmetry, ready to exit the Top 10.  None of the three have recuperated their budgets, but motion-capture animation feature "Mars Needs Moms" is in the worst situations, with a two-week total of $19M on a $150M budget. Disney has just lost a ton of money. The Twilightesque "Red Riding Hood" and the dystopian love story "The Adjustment Bureau" have come close and with international earnings, plus DVD/Blu-Ray sales, they will probably get their intended profit.

Here is the Top 10 for the week of 25 March 2011 :

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Weekend : $24.4M
Total : $24.4M

2. Sucker Punch
Weekend : $19M
Total : $19M

3. Limitless
Weekend : $15.2M  
Total : $41.3M

4. The Lincoln Lawyer
Weekend : $11M   
Total : $29M

5. Rango
Weekend : $9.8M     
Total : $106M

6. Battle: Los Angeles
Weekend : $7.6M      
Total : $72.6M

7. Paul
Weekend : $7.51M    
Total : $24.6M

8. Red Riding Hood
Weekend : $4.39M    
Total : $32.5M

9. The Adjustment Bureau
Weekend : $4.24M
Total : $54.9M

10. Mars Needs Moms
Weekend : $2.19M  
Total : $19.2M