Jon Heder and Will Ferrell in DreamWorks Pictures' "Blades of Glory."

Easter weekend moviegoers in America preferred comedy to blood and guts as Paramount's "Blades of Glory" and Disneys' "Meet the Robinsons" took the No. 1 and 2 spots at the box office.

"Blades of Glory" remained on top of the heap, bringing in 23 million U.S. dollars, while "Meet the Robinsons" grossed 17 million dollars. Sony grabbed the No. 3 position (15 million dollars) with the debut of "Are We Done Yet?", starring Ice Cube in a sequel to "Are We There Yet?"

Highly promoted "Grindhouse," a three-hour reinvention of the down-and-dirty B-movie double features directors Quentin Tarantino and Roberts Rodriguez grew up watching, opened at No. 4 with 11.6 million dollars.

Released by the Weinstein Co., "Grindhouse" fell well short of expectations. Box-office forecasters predicted the movie would premiere in the neighborhood of Tarantino's two "Kill Bill" movies and Rodriguez's "Sin City," whose opening weekends ranged from 22 million dollars to 29 million dollars.

"Grindhouse" presents two full films. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" features Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer who becomes a zombie fighter with a machine gun for a leg. Tarantino's "Death Proof" stars Kurt Russell as a serial killer who stalks women with his beefed-up car.

Quentin Tarantino and Roberts Rodriguez's "Grindhouse"

"With these two filmmakers' pedigree and the overall cool factor that this film had going for it, you would have figured it would have done a lot more business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"Grindhouse" played to big crowds on the East and West coasts but failed to click with audiences in the Midwest and South, Harvey Weinstein said.

    With theatrical receipts, overseas sales, television and home-video revenues, "Grindhouse" will turn a profit on its 53 million dollar budget, Weinstein said. The company hoped word of mouth from those who did see it would sustain it at theaters in coming weeks, he said.

"If you go see it with any audience, walk into any theater, you'll see people screaming and applauding like a rock concert," Weinstein said. "Maybe we didn't educate the audience that it's such an experience."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

Editor: Donald