Weekend Box Office Re-Cap

Weekend Box Office Re-Cap

Movie News

By our guest blogger, Joe Oliveto

It’s been an odd holiday season for the major movie studios this year. People tend to go to the movies on the weekend, but as was the case, both Christmas and New Year’s happened to fall on the weekend this season. As a result, many films out right now performed less impressively than they probably would have if there weren’t any holidays to keep people busy. There weren’t even any new, major releases this past weekend.

Which means, yes, “Little Fockers” inexplicably remains on top, taking in a little over $26 million this weekend for an overall box office gross of $103,191,000, making back its budget and a little more in two weeks. Let’s just hope profits don’t get high enough to warrant a fourth installment.

We can at least be happy to know that “True Grit,” the Coen bros. remake of the classic John Wayne Western, came in a fairly close second, with $24.5 million in weekend earnings. It is perhaps the closest thing to a mainstream crowd-pleaser this duo has worked on (with the possible exception of “O Brother, Where Art Thou”) and audiences seem to be responding enthusiastically.

Another Jeff Bridges-starring picture, “Tron: Legacy,” came in at number three. It’s been out for three weeks and has yet to make back its budget. In the end, when overseas box office reports come in and DVD/Blu-Ray sales add up, it will probably get there, but the constant marketing of this movie indicates that the studio probably expected it to be more of a hit. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

Family films took the four, five, and six spot—“Yogi Bear,” “Narnia,” and “Tangled,” respectively—with Mark Wahlberg’s passion project “The Fighter” coming in at number seven. “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Black Swan,” and “The King’s Speech” all languished at the bottom of the pile.