Seven-Day Summary: 'Nightmare' Handily Haunts the Week
Freddy Krueger flexed his villainous muscles this week, propelling the Nightmare on Elm Street remake to an easy first place finish. Way behind was How to Train Your Dragon, which continued to post strong numbers in its sixth week, along with holdovers Date Night and The Back-Up Plan. Rounding out the top five was the other newcomer, Furry Vengeance, though the environmentalist family comedy failed to produce green returns.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) finished its first week with $39.4 million from 3,332 theaters. That's a better opening week than similar remakes Halloween (2007) and The Amityville Horror (2005), though it fell short of Friday the 13th (2009) and Krueger's last outing, Freddy Vs. Jason. Nightmare did bleed out quickly, with earnings decreasing each day this week. Its 39 percent Monday to Thursday drop indicates that it will have a steep second weekend decline.

How to Train Your Dragon was down 31 percent to $12.8 million, bringing its six-week total to $194.3 million. Though it's yielding its lucrative IMAX screens to Iron Man 2, Dragon is still on pace to surpass Monsters Vs. Aliens's final total this weekend and could cross the $200 million mark as well.

Date Night eased just 28 percent to $9.5 million for a four-week total of $75.6 million. The Back-Up Plan had a more traditional fall for a romantic comedy, off 40 percent to $9.4 million. In two weeks, the CBS Films movie has made $25.1 million, or double what the distributor's previous movie Extraordinary Measures grossed in its entire run.

Furry Vengeance failed to spark much excitement among moviegoers, collecting just $7.6 million in its first seven days. Though it finished in fifth place for the week and the weekend, it occupied the ninth or tenth slots during the weekdays, grossing a meager $1 million from Monday to Thursday. That's not alarming, though, as movies that appeal to young children often make very little on non-holiday weekdays.

Overall business was relatively slow for the week of April 30-May 6, coming in at $128 million for all movies playing. That was down ten percent from the final week of April last year.

Related Story

Weekend Report: 'Nightmare' Wakes Up in First


Last Week

Seven-Day Summary: 'Dragon' Returns to the Top



Related Charts

• Weekly Box Office, April 30-May 6


• Daily Grosses