Weekend Recap: Box office ruled by an Iron fist

It was not a question of whether  “Iron Man 2” would earn one of the highest weekend grosses of all-time, just a matter of where it would land. The follow-up to the 2008 superhero hit took in $128.1 million this weekend, good enough for fifth all time just ahead of “Shrek the Third” and right behind “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

Not surprisingly, it beat out the second best film this weekend, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” by $119 million. Still contending in its seventh week already was “How to Train Your Dragon,” which passed the coveted $200 million mark.

1. Iron Man 2 – $128.1 M (weekend) … $128.1 M (gross)
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street – $9.1 M … $48.4 M
3. How to Train Your Dragon – $6.6 M … $201 M
4. Date Night – $5.4 M … $81 M
5. The Back-up Plan $5 M … $30 M
6. Furry Vengeance – $4.4 M … $12.1 M
7. Clash of the Titans – $2.5 M … $158 M
8. Death at a Funeral – $2.3 M … $38.5 M
9. Babies – $2.1 M … $2.1 M
10. The Losers – $1.8 M … $21.4 M

“Iron Man 2” jolted the box office by 86.4 percent despite no other film earning more than $10 million. That’s the power of Tony Stark, people. Other films’ poor showings allowed “Babies,” appearing in fewer than 600 theaters, to find a spot in the top ten and consequently making me think twice about not including it in the weekend preview. More than $4,000 per theater is pretty solid for a bunch of babies.

Yet even in a light week, “The Losers” fell to No. 10 in just its third week and “Kick-Ass” dropped out all together.

My top five performers were also dead on this week, even though “A Nightmare on Elm Street” plummeted 72 percent from last week and managed only $3 million better than “Dragon.”