Friday Report: 'Battle: Los Angeles' Invades
On Friday, Battle: Los Angeles marched into the top spot with the single biggest Friday haul of the year so far, while Red Riding Hood lacked bite and Mars Needs Moms was a massive flop. All three movies generally played out according to what their respective genres prescribed. Overall business was down again from last year, when Alice in Wonderland's reign continued.

Battle: Los Angeles raked in an estimated $13.5 million on approximately 4,700 screens at 3,417 locations, boasting initial attendance comparable to Black Hawk Down. Its first day gross was greater than the entire opening weekend of the last Los Angeles-set, alien invasion movie Skyline, though that picture's abject failure was an aberration of the sub-genre, not the norm. Battle's start was a bit less than District 9's $14.2 million and well behind Cloverfield's $17.2 million, and it, of course, didn't hold a candle to the likes of Independence Day and War of the Worlds.

Red Riding Hood mustered an estimated $5 million on close to 3,500 screens at 3,030 locations, which was less than The Brothers Grimm and within the average range of werewolf movies. Its estimated attendance was only slightly higher than Cursed's. Werewolves (sans vampires) haven't been terribly popular at the box office, so it was always unlikely that Red Riding Hood would replicate Twilight's success, despite being from the same director (Catherine Hardwicke).

Mars Needs Moms was an utter disaster, eking out just $1.7 million on around 4,400 screens at 3,117 locations (including 2,440 3D venues). Sci-fi animation can be a tough sell, and Mars still had one of the sub-genre's weakest launches ever, selling fewer tickets than even Planet 51, Space Chimps and Astro Boy.

Rango ranked second with an estimated $5.4 million, though its 43 percent Friday-to-Friday decline was nothing special. The animated Western comedy's tally rose to $51 million in eight days. There were standard-issue drops across the board among holdovers. The Adjustment Bureau slipped 50 percent to an estimated $3.4 million, increasing its sum to $30.4 million in eight days, while Beastly tumbled 54 percent to an estimated $1.68 million for a $13.6 million total in eight days.

Related Chart

Grosses for Friday, Mar. 11, 2011

Comps for:

'Battle: Los Angeles'

'Mars Needs Moms'

'Red Riding Hood'