The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ruled theaters this weekend, but his reign was hardly what some had predicted.
The second installment of the Narnia franchise did $56.6 million, according to studio estimates from tracking firm Nielsen EDI.
Some analysts had projected the movie to do $70 million.
While the film earned an A- from audience pollsters Cinemascore and a recommendation from more than 70% of the nation's film critics, Narnia, like last week's Speed Racer, lost business to Iron Man.
The comic-book adaptation, which kicked off Hollywood's summer May 2, dropped a scant 39% to take second place with $31.2 million. The haul brought its three-week total to $222.5 million, the year's highest-grossing film to date.
The Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas also held well, dropping only 31% for third place and $13.9 million.
Speed Racer, the $120 million race adventure from Andy and Larry Wachowski, began its plummet on the charts. After opening in third place last week, it dropped 59% for $7.5 million and fourth place. The Tina Fey comedy Baby Mama was No. 5 with $4.6 million.
Ticket sales were down 27% from the same weekend last year.
"'Prince Caspian' rules, but 'Iron Man' stays strong at box office"
5 Comments -
Yay Iron Man! I played hookey (how do you spell that?) on Saturday and hubby and I went to see a 10:30 AM showing!! We liked it a lot.
May 19, 2008 5:31 AM
I loved it too!
May 19, 2008 8:18 AM
Jules and I saw Baby Mama last night and it was hilarious. Both actresses really brought their A-game.
I find myself really not caring about Prince Caspian for some reason. Too much going on.
Yay for Iron Man. Too bad for Speed Racer.
May 19, 2008 1:57 PM
I'm in the same boat with Caspian. I think that was my least favorite of the books as a kid. Plus I wasn't overwhelmed by the first movie in any case.
Baby Mama looks solid.
May 19, 2008 7:23 PM
I'll wait for Netflix to catch Narnia.
May 20, 2008 4:29 AM