Blades Grinds Up Grindhouse

Mon., Apr. 9, 2007 2:17 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Apparently, the Easter bunny and machine gun-legged women don't mix.

A double dose of shocksploitation from Hollywood's reigning renegade auteurs was no match for toe loops and triple axels as Will Ferrell and Jon Heder's figure-skating farce, Blades of Glory, ground Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse to a pulp at the box office this weekend.

For the second weekend in a row, the Paramount-DreamWorks comedy about two former figure-skating rivals who join forces to become the sport's first men's pair iced the competition, grossing a cool $22.5 million, according to figures compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations.

While the Ferrell-Heder combo reigned supreme yet again, with ticket sales down a scant 32 percent for a 10-day tally of $67.9 million, Grindhouse failed to match the hype with just $11.6 million in fourth place—not exactly the kind of numbers industry observers expected from the makers of Kill Bill and Sin City.

Tarantino and Rodriguez's ode to B-movie double bills of the '60s and '70s perhaps suffered from its three-hour-plus running time. The film consists of two separate features: Rodriguez's Planet Terror, starring Rose McGowan as a legless zombie killer, and Tarantino's Death Proof, a thriller starring Kurt Russell as a psycho stuntman who kills women with his car. To re-create the feel of old-school exploitation flicks, the filmmakers even commissioned fake movie trailers from director pals like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie.

Instead, holiday moviegoers preferred more family-friendly fare. Disney's Meet the Robinsons remained strong in second place in its second week. The 'toon registered $16.7 million in ticket sales, off just 33 percent, pushing its 10-day total to $52.2 million.

And Sony Pictures' Ice Cube-powered comedy Are We Done Yet?, a sequel to his hit 2005 film Are We There Yet?, opened in third place with $14.3 million.

In fifth place was the Hilary Swank-fronted thriller The Reaping, a modern-day twist on the biblical 10 plagues, which managed to harvest a mediocre $10 million.

The year's first blockbuster hit, 300, marched closer to $200 million. Warner Bros.' stylish take on the Battle of Thermopylae soldiered on with $8.4 million in sixth place, bringing its overall haul to $193.4 million.

The week's last major newcomer, 20th Century Fox's canine comedy Firehouse Dog, had more bark than bite, earning only $3.8 million to debut in 10th place.

In limited release, Miramax's critically praised The Hoax, starring Richard Gere as fake Howard Hughes biographer Clifford Irving, scammed $1.4 million at 235 sites for a so-so per-screen average of $6,167.

Here's a rundown of the top-grossing films from Friday to Sunday, based on final studio figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Blades of Glory, $22.5 million
2. Meet the Robinsons, $16.7 million
3. Are We Done Yet?, $14.3 million
4. Grindhouse, $11.6 million
5. The Reaping, $10 million
6. 300, $8.4 million
7. Wild Hogs, $6.6 million
8. Shooter, $5.9 million
9. TMNT, $4.8 million
10. Firehouse Dog, $3.8 million