Box Office

Dragon Battles Kick-Ass for Top Spot

And Avatar sales up 21 percent.

Kick-Ass surprised box-office analysts this weekend, but not in a good way. Lionsgate’s superhero film raked in under $20 million its first weekend out, a decent bow but still below initial estimates for the buzzy satire. Final numbers won’t be in until Monday, but it looks like How to Train Your Dragon (which has been in theaters for four weeks) will just edge out the film—which was no doubt hurt by an R rating that deterred some young fanboys. The only other debut was Death at a Funeral, which came in at $17 million. Date Night continued a strong run with $17.3 million. And somehow, in its 18th week, numbers for Avatar rose over 21 percent since last week, perhaps due to recent television commercials advertising its DVD release on April 22.