This weekend was always going to be a breather period, a mere flash in the pan, before the arrival of the juggernaut that shall be Iron Man 3 next weekend. Still, this weekend saw the wide releases of two new films, targeting pretty much polar opposite demographics, but while one flopped, the other ended up beating expectations. And that latter film, ladies and gents, is our number one movie this weekend.

Pain and Gain

Marky Mark’s come a long way since the Funky Bunch days.

Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson helped propel Pain and Gain to a solid $20 million opening. That’s a bit above most expectations, which seemed to peg it in the mid to high teens. This film also marks Michael Bay’s first movie not featuring giant robots fighting each other in eight whole years. Pain and Gain came in with an okay 56% at Rotten Tomatoes but its Cinemascore was a C+, which doesn’t bode well for the future. Still, the budget was only $26 million, so I’m sure Paramount isn’t worried. This will easily be profitable for them.

Second place goes to Oblivion, which dropped 53% to $17.4 million. After opening slightly above Minority Report, it has now fallen about $9 million behind. Ten or twelve years ago, an opening in the upper 30s almost guaranteed a film would hit $100 million. Now? Not so much. With $64.7 million in the bank, I think Oblivion will end up around $90-100 million. On the plus side, it’s been doing very well overseas.

Dropping 40%, 42 came in third this weekend, bringing in $10.8 million. The legs so far have been good, but not great. But still, $69.1 million so far against a budget of $40 million is quite good and I think there’s a chance 42 could end up outgrossing Oblivion.

The Big Wedding sputtered into fourth place with a weak $7.5 million. Wedding films usually do pretty well, but clearly this one misfired. Following in fifth, The Crooks dropped 29% to $6.6 million. $163 million so far for the Fox picture. G.I. Joe: Retaliation was next in sixth, down 37% to $3.6 million. $116.4 million for a total isn’t bad, but it’s not really good either. I do wonder if moviegoers are going to get tired of Dwayne Johnson by the time Fast and Furious 6 rolls around.

Honestly, I’m surprised Scary Movie 5 hasn’t been falling harder. It was down 44% this weekend, which for the genre and franchise, isn’t bad. I guess the opening weekend was just that bad. It could only fall so much. Anyway, $3.5 million this weekend brought its total to $27.5 million.

Olympus Has Fallen fell 38% to $2.8 million, lifting the total gross to $93.1 million. It’s really going to have to work to hit $100 million; I think it’ll end up just shy. The Place Beyond the Pines failed to catch on, it seems, as it dropped 45% to $2.7 million. Still, $16.2 million isn’t half bad for such a small project. Finally, we have Jurassic Park 3D in tenth. Down 43%, it pulled in $2.3 million for a total of $42 million so far.

No other wide release is daring to open against Iron Man 3 next weekend. Although Iron Man 2 had a somewhat tepid reception, particularly compared to the first in the series, it feels more like Iron Man 3 is a continuation of the much better received The Avengers. The good will toward that should help Tony Stark and company to a huge opening in the neighborhood of $150 million. I’ll try to get a full May Preview up later this week. Until we meet again, everybody.