The return of Tron to the big screen wins the weekend box office, leaving Yogi Bear and a host of other releases in its wake...
Between new releases and expanding releases, there were five movies grabbing for a little extra box office noteworthiness this weekend. The biggest of these big deals was, of course, Tron: Legacy. After all, it's a sequel 27 years in the making, featuring some of the best special effects the wizards of Hollywood can come up with, starring one of the best actors of his generation. Then, there are the other movies which have crept out this weekend, from an animated talking bear to dueling ballerinas and a hard-luck tale of a working-class fighter and his troublesome family. Something for everyone? Something for everyone.
When it comes to the new and expanded releases, the big winner was Tron: Legacy. It debuted to strong box office numbers, bringing in $43.6 million in spite of stiff competition. Then again, it also has nearly 30 years of geek praise behind it, which helped to build the audience. Adding in the promise of 3D and jaw-dropping special effects, and it's no wonder the multiplexes were crowded.
Of the non-Tron new releases, Yogi Bear fared the best, while How Do You Know fared the worst. Yogi and Boo Boo take second place, with $16.7 million dollars; How Do You Know managed eighth on $7.6 million at the box office. Apparently, How Do You Know cost $120 million to make, which makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Maybe Sony needed a tax write-off?
Expanding films The Fighter and Black Swan also packed a punch, with The Fighter adding 2500 screens and packing on $12.2 million at the box office, for fourth place. Black Swan added 869 screens and took home $8.3 million, increasing its cash total while dropping to seventh place. I saw both this weekend, and both were great. Black Swan might be the best scary film of 2010. Shudder-worthy all the way through.
Among holdovers, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader continues to hold up surprisingly well. The latest, and possibly last, Narnia flick from Fox sits at third place at the box office on $12.4 million dollars. However, it didn't have the blast-off start that the series needed to ensure continued profitability in the US. Fortunately, the foreign box office is carrying this film, with the flick banking a staggering $123.6 million outside of the States. Still, something's got to change, and 3D hasn't been it for the series, which is facing both slacking audiences and critical indifference.
Last week's second-place movie, The Tourist, was also punished by the glut of newer, better releases. It picked up $8.7 million, but fell all the way to fifth. The $100 million dollar Depp/Jolie vehicle has picked up only $30.7 million at the box office, which is just more proof that a) Jolie by herself struggles to draw flies (Salt apart) and b) nobody wants to see Johnny Depp playing a relatively normal guy. Similarly, Tangled was punished by the loss of a great deal of its 3D screens, dropping out of the top five (sixth place, $8.67 million).
Ninth place Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the first movie of the weekend not to take in at least $8 million, but it's also over a month old and has already banked $265 million in the US (and nearly $825 million worldwide). Rounding out the top ten this weekend was Unstoppable, which is pulling to a stop with $1.8 million this weekend. It's sitting at $77 million US, and may pick up $80-85 million before it heads to the video store and Netflix queue.
Next weekend is the Christmas holiday, which means that there'll be a lot of big movies coming out. Chief among these is True Grit, at least for me. Also coming out are Little Fockers, which is firmly turning the dead horse into horse gravy, Gulliver's Travels (ugh), an expanding The King's Speech, and a further expanding Black Swan.
True Grit's going to kick ass...
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