Despite the horrific images of destruction coming out of Japan in recent days (you can donate to the Red Cross here), the wealth of disaster footage didn’t put US audiences off seeing California’s coastline get the living daylights blown out of it by marauding aliens as Battle: Los Angeles marched to the top of the box office with $36 million.
The new arrival in the box office bunk shoved quirksome ‘toon Rango down one place, with the Western-fuelled adventure moving to second for its second week on release and $23 million. Catherine Hardwicke’s latest attempt to blend teen romance with legendary monsters, Red Riding Hood, didn’t seem to capture the imagination of its core female audience, with the movie opening to a less-than-fairytale result of $14.1 million. Cue the onslaught of “my, what a big disappointment you are” headlines. The Adjustment Bureau, meanwhile, slipped just two places to fourth with $11.4 million, while the big disappointment of the week was CG performance capture ‘toon Mars Needs Moms, which kicked off to bad reviews and a lacklustre $6.8 million.
Farrelly comedy Hall Pass fell to sixth place, nabbing $5.1 million while Beastly began to fall down the charts, taking $5 million. In eighth place, we find Adam Sandler’s latest, Just Go With It, which made $4 million, while ninth was The King’s Speech, down one place and earning $3.6 million. And finally at 10th, Gnomeo & Juliet prepared to leave the top 10, taking $3.5 million on its way out.
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