SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros is already planning the 3D sequel. “The franchise is very much alive,” an exec told me this morning. Because this weekend’s opening for New Line/Warner Bros’ A Nightmare On Elm Street was $32.2 million — or 15.8 million Friday and $10.5 million Saturday and Sunday’s estimate from 3,332 theaters. (Friday’s take includes $1.6 million from Thursday midnight shows in about 1,000 locations, a new record for a horror flick previously held by the February 2009 rebooted Friday The 13th‘s $1 million.) “A Nightmare On Elm Street is a dream that won’t stop,” a rival studio exec emailed me. Puh-leeze, this Michael Bay-produced pic received rotten reviews. In all, this is the 9th in the infamous franchise — if you count number Freddy vs Jason — with Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. (Robert Englund as the slasher used to scare me so badly I could never even watch the trailers of the old films.)

By contrast, Furry Vengence turned in a nightmare performance as expected of a politically correct kiddie pic about the environment. Remember when Brendan Fraser had a film career? Opening in 2,997 theaters, the pic was co-produced and co-financed by Summit and Participant Media/Imagenation Abu Dhabi. But the studio claims the $35 million budget went lower after rebates, incentives, and strong pre-sales by Summit International. Even so, this did only $1.7 million Friday and $2.9 million Saturday for a $6.5M weekend with Sunday’s estimate.

Here’s the Top 10:

1. Nightmare on Elm Street (NL/WB) NEW [3,332 Runs]

Friday $15M, Saturday $10.5M, Weekend $32.2M

2. How To Train Your Dragon (DWA/Par) Week 6 [3,426 Runs]

Friday $2.5M, Saturday $4.7m, Weekend $10.8M, Cume $192.3M

3. Date Night (Fox) Week 4 [3,093 Runs]

Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.4M, Weekend $7.6M, Cume $73.6M

4. The Back-Up Plan (CBS Films/Sony) Week 2 [3,280 Runs]

Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.0M, Weekend $7.2M (-41%), Cume $22.9M

5. Furry Vengeance (Summit) NEW [2,997 Runs]

Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.9M, Weekend $6.5M

6. The Losers (Dark Castle/WB) Week 2 [2,936 Runs]

Friday $1.9M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $6M, Cume $18.1M

7. Clash Of The Titans (Warner Bros) Week 5 [2,736 Runs]

Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.6M, Weekend $5.9M, Cume $154.0M

8. Kick-Ass (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,452 Runs]

Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.5M, Cume $42.2M

9. Death At A Funeral (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,271 Runs]

Friday $1.2M, Saturday $1.7M, Weekend $4.0M, Cume $34.8M

10. Oceans (Disney Nature) Week 2 [1,210 Runs]

Friday $830K, Saturday $1M, Weekend $2.6M (-56%), Cume $13.5M

FRIDAY 2:15 PM: I was just told that the New Line/Warner Bros reimagining of A Nightmare On Elm Street debuted to $1.6 million from Thursday midnight shows in about 1,000 theaters. That’s way more than the previous record for a horror flick: the February 2009 rebooted Friday The 13th‘s $1 million. Today, Nightmare opens in 3,332 locations and my sources tell me right now the Friday domestic grosses look like a whopping $15M to $17M. So that’s a $40+M opening weekend for sure.