New Line’s remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street easily took the weekend box office crown with an estimated $32.2 million, but a film that doesn’t even open here until next weekend stole Freddy Krueger’s thunder.  Iron Man 2, which opened in 6,764 theaters overseas and brought in a stellar $100.2 million, overshadowed Freddy’s return and its potent bow in 53 foreign markets forecasts a boffo frame next weekend when the summer movie season really gets underway.

The new Nightmare earned only a 14% positive rating from the genre-friendly critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics can’t keep horror film fans away from something as momentous as the return of Freddy Krueger for his ninth theatrical go-round.  But there are some ominous signs for the new Nightmare, which couldn’t match the $40.6 million debut of the remake of Friday the 13th a year ago.  Freddy’s Friday total of $15.8 million fell 33% on Saturday to $10.6 million.  If the new Nightmare follows the front-loaded pattern of most modern horror films (particularly those that don’t fare well with the critics), expect a major decline next weekend.

One film unlikely to experience a big drop next week is Dreamworks’ 3D cartoon How to Train Your Dragon, which has demonstrated exemplary “legs,” dropping just 30% in its sixth frame.  Sometime next week Dragon should become the second 3D cartoon film to pass the $200 million mark, joining Pixar’s Up in that exclusive club.

Even with Iron Man 2 opening next weekend, the Steve Carrell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night should continue to do well.  It dropped just 27.4% in its fourth weekend and has now earned $73.6 million.  Jennifer Lopez’ The Back-Up Plan got panned by the critics, but it fell just 40.7% in its second weekend and could continue to surprise.

No such luck for Summit’s family film Furry Vengeance, which took it on the chin from both critics (just 2% positive on RT) and audiences, grossing just $6.5 million from 2,997 locations for a very poor $2,169 average in its debut.

The good news for Warner Bros.’ The Losers was that it suffered just a 36% drop in its second weekend.  The bad news is that it has only earned $18.1 million so far and will have trouble making more than $30 million domestically (against a cost of $25 million, which means it won’t be profitable unless it does very well on DVD).  The news is better for Warners’ Clash of the Titans, which dropped just 33% in its fifth frame, demonstrating the staying power of 3D movies once again.

Kick-Ass slipped 52.4% in its third weekend, earning an estimated $4.4 million and finishing in 8th place.  Marvel’s Kick-Ass graphic novel continues to top graphic novel sales charts in the bookstores, so the film’s less-than-stellar run at the theatrical box office does not appear to be affecting GN sales.  Kick-Ass should do really well on DVD and spur another wave of graphic novel sales, especially if Marvel can time the release of the cheaper paperback edition with the DVD.

Overall it was another very lackluster weekend, especially compared with the past two years when the summer movie season began on the first weekend in May.  The total gross of the top ten films was down 41% from last year when X-Men Origins: Wolverine debuted with $85.1 million and 41% from 2008 when the first Iron Man film bowed with a stellar $98.6 million total.