Not even Johnny Depp and Matt Damon could help the box office this weekend.
Continuing to trend way behind 2010, the overall domestic market was down again, 34 percent year-to-year, as Depp's CG-animated family movie, Paramount's "Rango," led the market with a softer-than-expected $38 million opening.
Damon's Philip K. Dick adaptation for Universal, "The Adjustment Bureau," actually did better than what was several weeks earlier expected, grossing $20.9 million. Opening in 21 territories day and date, the movie also grossed $10.5 million overseas.
There were two other wide-openings: CBS Films' youth-oriented "Beastly" outpaced tracking for a solid $10.1 million performance. (The Alex Pettyfer fantasy drama cost CBS only $17 million to make.)
Relativity's R-rated raunchfest "Take Me Home Tonight" tanked, grossing just $3.5 million. Relativity acquired the Topher Grace homage to '80s fratboy comedies from Universal and Imagine for $10 million.
Here's the top 10. Full report continues below chart:
So, there you have it -- with over two months of the calendar year completed, only one week has been up year-over-year at the box office, which is down nearly 30 percent overall at this point. Time to panic?
"I think it's too early to press the panic button," said Paramount G.M. of distribution Don Harris.
Universal domestic distribution president Nikki Rocco, meanwhile, noted that last year's first weekend of March was led by the $116.1 million performance of another Depp film, "Alice in Wonderland," which grossed $116.1 million.
Like it was with "Avatar" in January, Rocco said the market is suffering year-to-year with comparisons to another "anomaly."
"You look at the overall total this weekend, and it's like $130 million," she said. "That's actually pretty decent."
Spending what studio officials said was $135 million to get into the CG family-film business, sans DreamWorks Animation, Paramount said its expectations were at about $40 million for "Rango," while outside estimates from tracking firms came in at around $50 million.
Scoring an 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Harris compared the movie favorably to DreamWorks' "How to Train Your Dragon," which Paramount opened as a distributor to $43.7 million in late-March of last year.
With "Dragon" commanding premium 3D and IMAX 3D ticket prices, Harris noted, "Rango" actually had more admissions than the DreamWorks film.
And with "Dragon" recovering from what was perceived to be a slow start, ultimately grossing $217.6 million domestically and $494.9 million worldwide, Paramount saw value in getting "Rango" out into market even earlier in the spring-break cycle.
"The idea was to put it at the front of spring vacation and have the movie play with kids as they get out of school (at various times) over the next six weeks," Harris explained.
Regardless of "Rango's" initial performance, Harris said the film's quality put Paramount on the map in the animation business.
"It is the best of what Pixar and DreamWorks Animation try to do," he said, "which is try to make a film that's for a family audience but that's also interesting for adults."
