Apparently the country was too busy gorging themselves on chocolate eggs and avoiding awkward questions at family dinners to head on down to the multiplex this holiday weekend, which saw mediocre returns for a handful of lower-profile new releases, making for the lowest-grossing Easter weekend in three years.
The lumbering beast that is Horton Hears A Who! trundled into the top spot for the second weekend in a row (the first film of the year to do so), though still made a little over half of last week's big take with a still-respectable $25.1 million. It was still enough to keep Tyler Perry's schlock-storm (his fifth in four years) Meet The Browns out of the top spot, though; the film grossed $20 million (his fourth to debut at $20 million or higher). Somewhat surprisingly, the horror film Shutter beat out golden boys Owen Wilson and Judd Apatow's Drillbit Taylor, which landed at a meager fourth. Also surprising: Despite opening in only 266 theaters (compared to Horton's 3,961 screens), Spanish-language sob-fest Under The Same Moon cracked the top 10 with a $2.6 million take.
More detailed numbers can be found at boxofficemojo.com.