The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
The holidays were officially over as the box office took a sharp decline with only one movie grossing $15 million, that being Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit (Paramount), which topped the box office after three weeks of playing second fiddle to the Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro comedy threequel Little Fockers (Universal). Starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, the acclaimed Western crossed the $100 million mark this weekend, the Coens’ first movie to do so, and with $110.4 million under its belt, it’s officially the third highest grossing Western of all time and should pass Wild Wild West later this week to be #2.
After a solid run through the holidays, Little Fockers dropped to second place with $13.8 million, down 46% from last week with a total gross of $124 million.
Nicolas Cage’s action-thriller Season of the Witch (Relativity Media) opened in third place with $10.7 million in 2,816 theaters, averaging roughly $3,800 per venue.
Disney’s FX-driven action flick TRON: Legacy dropped to third place with $9.8 million, bringing its one month total to $148 million domestically. It has grossed $291 million worldwide.
The big breakout of the weekend was Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, which moved up four places to fifth, grossing $8.3 million with a minimal theater expansion. Down just 6% from the holiday weekend, the much-discussed award contender has grossed $61.4 million to date and will be expanding into roughly 500 further theaters for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
After playing for a few weeks in a platform release, the Gwyneth Paltrow musical drama Country Strong (Sony/Screen Gems) expanded nationwide into 1,424 theaters where it brought in a decent $7.3 million to take sixth place.
The Mark Wahlberg-Christian Bale boxing drama The Fighter (Paramount) dropped to seventh place with $7 million and $57.8 million since opening in December.
Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech (Weinstein Company), starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, moved up two notches to eighth place with $6.8 million in 758 theaters and $33.3 million total.
It came out just ahead of the family film Yogi Bear (Warner Bros), which dropped all the way down to ninth place with $6.8 million and $75.6 million total.
Disney’s animated Tangled dropped 47% to take tenth place with $5.2 million and $176 million total.
The Top 10 grossed an estimated $90.8 million, which was down 38% from 2010’s opening weekend where James Cameron’s Avatar remained on top for a fourth weekend with $50.3 million, followed by two other returning movies that brought in $16.5 million each. The top new movie was the vampire flick Daybreakers, opening with $15.1 million, more than this weekend’s top movie.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
