North American box office: cash of the ‘Titans’

Clash of the Titans came in a little under its Sunday estimate, but nowhere near enough under to threaten its status as now the biggest Easter movie ever. Not that this record is any kind of measure of quality: the previous biggest Easter movie ever was Scary Movie 4, which earned a little over $40 million in 2006. Must be the chocolate bunny sugar rush that assures that over this holiday weekend, audiences set the bar low for satisfaction. That would explain the continued success of Tyler Perry, too.

Last Easter, Hannah Montana: The Movie was No. 1: maybe if The Last Song had been in 3D and featured Miley Cyrus battling the Kraken, it might have had a chance this year. Still, $16 million -- more than $25 million since it opened last Wednesday -- is more than the film might have expected, considering that Cyrus apart from the Hannah Montana brand had been almost completely untested.

At least the wonderful How to Train Your Dragon holding strong gives me a little hope for humanity.

Oh, but wait: looking past the top 5, we see that awful movies doing well is a more widespread trend than it looks at first glance. Hot Tub Time Machine dropped less than 50 percent -- 42 percent, specifically -- in its second week, and The Bounty Hunter, in its third week, managed to stay under the dreaded 50-percent drop, too -- just, at 49 percent. Why, people?

[numbers via Box Office Mojo]