The smart money had the fantastic Kick-Ass winning the weekend box-office race after a month of promotion and hot buzz. Good thing people can't bet on movie futures yet, because How to Train Your Dragon experienced a strong surge in its third weekend to best all comers. Thanks to a huge amount of screens and the benefit of premium 3-D prices, the DreamWorks kid pic raked in $20M ($158.6M) to edge Matthew Vaughn's hard-R comic book treatment ($19.75M) (of course that could change when Monday actuals come in, but who pays attention to those?) Date Night enjoyed a strong second weekend ($17.3M | $49.2M) to top the disappointing Death at a Funeral ($17M). Clash of the Titans rounded out the top 5 ($15.7M | $132.9M). more ›

The months-long wait to see Kick-Ass is almost over! Can't wait! May see it twice this weekend. Sure it may be nihilistic and inappropriate (e.g. the obvious sexualization of a pre-teen Chloe Moretz), but God damn if it doesn't feel full of energy and evil wit. Plus, it features good Nic Cage (as opposed to bad Nic Cage). What I won't see is the astonishingly unnecessary re-make of Death at a Funeral. It begs the question: can Chris Rock translate his unique comic persona into anything other than dull, generic films? Our mess of an educational system is put under the microscope by a privateer in The Cartel. Bring your conservative friends! more ›

Even though finished third, totalling 11.1 million and now sitting at an unexpectedly robust 152.2 million. more ›