By Chris Kavan - 03/28/11 at 12:33 AM CT
Despite a big advertising push and a lot of buzz, the critically-mauled Sucker Punch was not able to keep up the momentum over the weekend. Instead, the top film for the weekend was Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.
In fact the $24.4 million was better than the opening for the original Wimpy Kid - and when you consider the film had just a $21 million budget, it's already a certified hit. The same can't be said for Zach Snyder's latest action film.
Although I was content, the critics were not. The vitriol was rampant, and the $19 million 2nd place showing represented Snyder's worst opening thus far. The mostly young and male audience for the film was not enough for the film to place only average returns compared to similar movies.
Coming in at 3 and 4, both Limitless and the Lincoln Lawyer held on to their audiences quite well, both dropping less than 20% in attendance. Limitless took in $15.2 million and now stands at $41.2 million while Lincoln Lawyer took in $11 million and has now earned just under $29 million.
In fifth place the animated Rango crossed the $100 million total, taking in $9.8 million for a $106 million total. Rango also managed to leap-frog Adam Sandler's Just Go With It to become the top-grossing movie for the year thus far.
Battle: Los Angeles crept closer to the $75 million mark with a 6th-place $7.6 million showing but a hefty 48% drop in attendance. Still, it's sitting pretty good at $72.5 million - earning back its $70 million budget.
The alien road-trip comedy Paul neared $25 million in its second week, dropping about 43% to take in $7.5 million. One movie that won't come anywhere near its budget is Mars Needs Moms - which suffered a huge 59% hit as theaters abandoned it to barely hit $19..1 million total.
With Sucker Punch failing to deliver a knockout hit, the total box office as still down compared to last year. Next weeks Easter Bunny-themed Hop and thriller Source Code will once again try to turn things around.
