In its debut weekend, Fox’s DATE NIGHT barely beat out previous box office champ CLASH OF THE TITANS for the top spot at the U.S. box office. With vfx by Framestore, The Moving Picture Company, Cinesite, CEG Media, Flash Film Works, Neil Corbould Special Effects, Nvizible, and Prime Focus View-D, the mythic epic earned $26.9 million ($110.5 cume) for the weekend of April 9-11, 2010, only $225,000 less than DATE NIGHT's $27.1 million take.

The big story of the week, however, is the continued strong showing of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON.  Dreamwork's highly rated animated tale garnered $25.4 for a 3 week cume of $133.9, a decrease of only 12.6% from last week.  DRAGONS now looks like it will meet or surpass MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, which opened in late March last year to a much higher debut weekend, $59.3 million compared to DRAGONS' $43.7. 

Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND ended up in sixth with another $5.6 million, a 31.6% drop from last week. With visual effects from Café FX, Matte World Digital, Nvizage, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Svengali Visual Effects, the hit film has collected $319.3 million so far.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (vfx by Mr. X) transported into sixth with $5.4 million, lifting its cume to $36.9 million. In #7, THE BOUNTY HUNTER kept chase with another $4.3 million, bringing its cume to $56 million. Placing eighth, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID drew up an additional $4.1 million, raising its cume to $53 million.

Rounding out the top ten, SHUTTER ISLAND emerged with an additional $845,000. With vfx from Crazy Horse Effects, Gentle Giant Studios, Mark Rappaport Creature Effects and New Deal Studios, the Martin Scorsese thriller has made $125 million.

Box office numbers obtained at boxofficemojo.com.