It looks like Marmaduke was less competition for the kiddie dollars than we expected, as Shrek Forever After still handily defeated all comers, moving into a few more theaters and scaring up another $25 million in ticket sales. I guess kids are no longer impressed by animals who don't have jobs? After all, why see a movie about a plain old dog when you can see a movie about a cat sword-fighter, or guinea-pig secret agents, or a mouse chef? (This may be why they're spinning Puss in Boots off into his own movie.) Maybe they should have called it Marley & Me 2: Puppy-Size Me!, and had Owen Wilson magically transform into Marley-maduke at the beginning of the film. Then it might have made $36 million in its opening weekend, like Marley, rather than the $11 million it did. Well, you know what they say: hindsight is a golden retriever. Rimshot!

Despite some middling reviews, Shrek Forever After managed to hold onto the number-one spot for the second week in a row, defeating new releases Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2 by bringing in the kids and charging extra for 3-D. Don't expect it to hang out in the Top Ten for long, though -- sure, the previous kid-friendly spot-hog, How to Train Your Dragon, is only now preparing to exit the Top Ten after 10 weeks, but between Marmaduke, The Karate Kid and Toy Story 3, the next three weeks will likely eat into Shrek's young audience, as well as the souls of any accompanying adults. (Toy Story 3 being the sure-to-be-tear-inducing exception.)

Considering how well How to Train Your Dragon has been doing ($44 million opening weekend, $211 mill to date), it's no wonder that the fourth installment in the popular Shrek franchise, Shrek Forever After would do even better. After all, it has dragons and overweight cats! Adorable! That, a lack of kid-friendly competition and the money-printing combo of IMAX and 3-D helped Shrek go medieval on the box office and earn $71 million, and although that's less than the last two Shrek films did in their opening weekends, it was still enough to knock Iron Man 2's knight in shining armor out of the top spot. However, since the armored Avenger has made a quarter-billion in the U.S. and one and a half-bill world wide in only three weeks, we won't feel too sorry for him.

In a testament to the power of superheroes (not to mention Robert Downey Jr.'s charm and Scarlett Johansson's bodysuits) Iron Man 2 came out on top for the second week in a row, preventing Robin Hood from rising to the number-one spot. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott did all right, with $37 million, but IM2 made another $53 million, putting it over the $200 million mark and overtaking How to Train Your Dragon, which is still making money in its 8th week. Perhaps if Robin Hood had been riding a dragon, we might have had a different champion.

It was no surprise that Iron Man 2 was the number-one movie at the box office this weekend. The only question was how high up the list of biggest openings of all time it would go. Well, it did pretty amazing, making $133.6 million to the first movie's $98.6 million, and landing in fifth place, behind four other sequels: Dark Knight, Spidey 3, New Moon and Dead Man's Chest. Sure, it didn't beat Batman's haul, but it beat Shrek 3, and that has to count for something.

Freddy Krueger is the king of slasher cinema once again, with the re-booted A Nightmare on Elm Street taking in over $32 million in its opening weekend. Although it didn't do as well as Freddy vs. Jason did in its opening weekend, it's already made more money in theaters than four of the other seven Nightmares did overall, and had a bigger opening than the relaunched Halloween. Eat it, Rob Zombie!

Last weekend's false victory aside, this weekend How to Train Your Dragon really did return to the top of the box office list, its giant, leathery wings overshadowing two middling releases. Four weeks after it opened with $43 million, it still managed to scrounge up $15 million -- enough to make The Back-up Plan, Jennifer Lopez's grand return to movies, come in second place. If only she'd been more leathery! If only!

After briefly losing out to the still-popular How to Train Your Dragon, which initially reported $20 million in kiddie tickets for the weekend, R-rated not-so-superhero movie Kick-Ass came out on top in its opening bow. Its $19.8 million beats Dragon's third-week $19.6 million and, combined with its overseas income, recoups its budget, hopefully making the prospect of a sequel more likely. Because if there's one thing we love more than little girls beating up criminals, it's watching those little girls grow up to lead productive lives.

Hey, remember the Titans? Somebody did, and they must have given them bad word-of-mouth, because Clash of the Titans has dropped off 56% in its second weekend, making only $26.7 million and almost allowing the Tina Fey-Steve Carell comedy Date Night to squeak into first place with $25.2 million. Granted, Titans has made a total of $230 million worldwide so far, and we doubt Date Night will ever make that much money, but it's hardly an even fight. While Titans has the Kraken, all Date Night could unleash was Mark Wahlberg's pecs. Magnificent, to be sure, but not really worth riding a pegasus around.

This weekend's theatrical releases featured a true clash of the box-office titans. In one corner, you had the big-budget remake of the swords-and-scorpions epic; in the other corner, you had Tyler Perry; in the third corner, you had Miley Cyrus in a Nicholas Sparks movie. But did anyone doubt that Clash of the Titans, with the support of the entire Greek Pantheon (and a sizable ad budget), would win the day? It earned $64 million beginning on Thursday, and is already halfway to recouping its budget without even having opened overseas yet. While there may not be a Clash 2 in the making, we see a remake of the similarly gods-and-monsters-infused Jason and the Argonauts in the future. Release the army of skeletons!