Friday Report: 'Iron Man 2' Fends Off 'Robin Hood'
Iron Man 2 took a Friday-to-Friday dive but still led the day, despite a sizable showing from Robin Hood. Declining 71 percent, Iron Man 2 pulled in an estimated $15.1 million, which was only slightly more than the $14.9 million that Iron Man grossed on its second Friday. The first movie also had greater attendance on the same day.

With $174.2 million in eight days, Iron Man 2 logged the ninth highest-grossing eight-day opening ever and stands ahead of the first Iron Man's $141.5 million through the same point. Based on antecedents, Iron Man 2's second weekend looks like it will come in at the high-$40-to-low-$50 million range.

Robin Hood grabbed an estimated $13.1 million on approximately 5,700 screens at 3,503 sites, which was much greater than director Ridley Scott's last historical epic, Kingdom of Heaven ($7.1 million), and more than the $11.1 million opening day of Mr. Scott's Gladiator ten years ago. Gladiator, though, is estimated to have sold around 25 percent more tickets on its first day.

If Robin Hood follows Gladiator's trajectory, its opening weekend would be in the low $40 million range, but distributor Universal Pictures is expecting it to come in at around $37 million, which would be more in line with the paths of Kingdom of Heaven and Troy.

Debuting in third place, Letters to Juliet earned an estimated $5 million on around 3,600 screens at 2,968 venues, which was a far cry from Letters star Amanda Seyfried's previous letter-oriented romance Dear John, which made $13.8 million its first day. Letters was decent nonetheless, and its distributor, Summit Entertainment, is now estimating $14.5 million for the weekend.

Just Wright opened in fourth with an estimated $2.9 million on around 2,100 screens at 1,831 sites, which was less than star Queen Latifah's Last Holiday as well as Love and Basketball among past comparable titles.

Meanwhile, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) continued to slide, and How to Train Your Dragonand Date Night continued to hold well. Nightmare dropped 54 percent to an estimated $1.5 million, which was fairly standard for its genre, bringing its total to $53 million in 15 days. Date Night saw its smallest Friday-to-Friday fall yet, down 23 percent to an estimated $1.23 million for an $83.9 million tally in 36 days. Dragon eased 24 percent to an estimated $1.17 million, and its total grew to $203.8 million in 50 days.

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Related Chart

• Daily Grosses for Friday, May 14