Jack-in-the-Box Office for the weekend of April 2nd-4th

This Easter weekend proved to be successful, if not phenomenal, for most of the opening weekend films and holdovers at the Box Office. As expected “Clash of the Titans” (which took over many of the 3-D screens from “Alice in Wonderland” and to a lesser extent “How to Train Your Dragon”) came in first place with $61 million. This number is a mixed-bag, because although “Clash of the Titans” enjoyed the highest Easter-weekend opening of all time, and the second highest April opening of all time (behind last year’s “Fast and Furious”), “Clash of the Titans” should have easily been able to cross the $70 million mark hit by “Fast and Furious” and “300” on their opening weekends. This comparison makes “Clash of the Titans” look worse considering the higher 3-D ticket prices it demanded which was not the case for “300” or “Fast and Furious” when their films opened. The near-miss opening for the film has been attributed to a combination of higher 3-D ticket prices, an overcrowded market place, less-than-stellar word-of-mouth, and the fact that the film didn’t play on IMAX screens (which were contractually obligated to play “How to Train Your Dragon” for another week due to a 2-year-old agreement with Paramount/Dreamworks). Despite the film falling below expectations domestically, its $125 million budget will easily be made back in the coming days, and with considering overseas grosses should ultimately make a handsome profit.

Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married Too?” opened at second place with $30 million, surpassing the opening weekend of its predecessor and every other Tyler Perry movie, except “Madea Goes to Jail”. Though many of his films experience drop-offs around 60% in the second weekend, his latest has already made a such an impressive profit off its $20 budget that the film will be remembered as another in a long line of Perry Box Office hits.

Speaking of holdovers, “How to Train Your Dragon” fell only 33% in its second week by taking in another $29 million. The holdover would seem more impressive if its opening hadn’t come in so far below expectations. As it stands now, the domestic total for the film is $92 million and the worldwide total is at $134 million. By this time next week, the film should have posted a worldwide figure above its $165 million production budget, so it should easily turn a profit for Dreamworks. Still, in comparison to the success of “Kung Fu Panda” and the “Shrek” franchise, “How to Train Your Dragon” will ultimately be a modest success at best.

“The Last Song” starring Miley Cyrus opened on Wednesday and came in fourth place over the weekend, taking in $16 million and $25 million for its five-day total. The film has already made a profit on its $20 million budget, so although her films tend to also experience large drop-offs in their second weeks, this film is already a bona fide Box Office success story,

Rounding out the top five is “Alice in Wonderland” adding another $8 million in its fifth week, bringing its domestic total to $309 million and its worldwide total to over $672 million. Although this weekend was the biggest drop-off the film has seen , it currently sits as the highest grossing and one of the most profitable films of 2010 so far.

In other opening-weekend news, the quirky romance “Breaking Upwards” starring Olivia Thirlby (“Juno”) played on one screen in New York and made $15,300, just over its $15,000 budget.

In the per-screen-average race, “Clash of the Titans”, “Breaking Upwards”, and “Why Did I Get Married Too” were the top three, taking in $16,256, $15,300, and $13,991 per screen respectively.

What drew you to the theater this weekend? Please let us know what you saw and what Oscar potential you feel it may have (if any). Thanks from all of us here at the Awards Circuit, and as always we look forward to seeing you at the movies.