Seven-Day Summary: ‘Iron Man 2’ Slows in Second Week
Fending off Robin Hood's valiant start, Iron Man 2 maintained its dominance over the box office this week, though it's week-to-week decline was noticeably steeper than that of its predecessor. The weeks' other new releases, Letters to Juliet and Just Wright, had passable debuts, while How to Train Your Dragon continued to wow audiences, albeit for the last time in the third dimension. Overall business was down eight percent from the same timeframe last year, when Star Trek finished its first week with over $100 million.

Iron Man 2 grossed $65.5 million in its second week, which was only slightly more than Iron Man's $64.7 million in the same period. Despite starting out much stronger, Iron Man 2 fell a substantial 59 percent, whereas Iron Man dipped a much lighter 48 percent. Unless it levels off, the sequel, which has tallied $224.7 million thus far, could struggle to surpass the original's $318.4 million total. On the foreign front, though, Iron Man 2 is up to $255 million, and is poised to overcome Iron Man's $265 million final tally sometime this weekend.

While it had to settle for second place, Robin Hood set a new standard for medieval fare with a $47.9 million opening week. This was more than Ridley Scott's last foray in to the genre, Kingdom of Heaven, grossed in its entire run. Still, Robin Hood opened behind its symbolic predecessor Gladiator, which got off to a $49 million start (or around $72 million adjusted for ticket price inflation). Worldwide, Robin Hood has made over $144 million, and should shoot past the $200 million mark in the next few days.

The week's two new romances put up pretty average numbers. Letters to Juliet fared the best with an $18.3 million haul, though that's less than half of what star Amanda Seyfried's last foray into the genre, Dear John, made in its first seven days. Just Wright managed $10.4 million, which was one of the worst opening weeks in Queen Latifah's career.

In its last week on a majority of 3D screens, How to Train Your Dragon eased 22 percent to $6.5 million. Dragon has thus far earned $209.1 million, and only needs to make an additional $6.4 million to pass Kung Fu Panda as the highest-grossing non-Shrek DreamWorks movie. This may take some time, though, as it will likely take a huge hit this week with Shrek Forever After confiscating nearly all of its 3D screens and family audiences (click here to read Brandon Gray's analysis of the Dragon phenomenon).

Related Story

Weekend Report: 'Iron Man 2' Buckles But Still Burns, 'Robin Hood' More Merry Than Medieval


Last Week

Seven-Day Summary: 'Iron Man 2' Scores Mighty First Week



Related Charts

• Weekly Box Office, May 14-20


• Daily Grosses