The Rite holds off The Mechanic, in a slower weekend at the US box office. Here's our round-up...
It's an easy recipe for success. Take Anthony Hopkins, add supernatural elements, mix in a little hint of Catholic Church pomp and circumstance, slap on a glaze of Exorcist, and bingo. You've got a cake made for box office success.
The Rite, the supernatural thriller starring the aforementioned Sir Anthony as a Catholic exorcist who may or may not be overtaken by the forces of evil, debuted at the top of the box office this weekend. The Rite (reviewed here) brought in $15 million, dethroning last week's top flick, No Strings Attached (second place, $13.65 million).
The Rite easily outpaced the other new release of the weekend, The Mechanic. Jason Statham shooting people took in a healthy $11.5 million this weekend, good for a solid third place tie. The Mechanic is a strong debut for Statham after the disaster that was Crank 2: High Voltage. It's not powered him up to the openings of the Transporter series, but it's a solid improvement over Crank the second, which managed only $13.6 million for its entire US run.
The Green Hornet, a funnier sort of action film, brought in $11.5 million as well. My fears of box office failure were a bit off, as Hornet has grossed an impressively healthy $78.8 million at the US box office in only three short weeks.
Also picking up $11 million ($11.1 million, to be exact) is The King's Speech. Riding a wave of potent press and awards nods, The King's Speech has already grossed $78.8 million in the States, with more money to be milked by a potential edit from R to PG-13 by the Weinstein Company. Not like they need it, as The King's Speech has grossed many times its $15 million budget and has banked $121 million worldwide. That's Weinstein's second-largest grossing film, behind Inglourious Basterds' $313 million.
True Grit drops out of the top five, but actually added a little cash at the box office versus last week. This weekend the flick banked $7.6 million, up from last weekend. The total so far is $148.3 million and rising. If you thought the Western was dead, think again. This is a good sign for Cowboys Versus Aliens later this summer.
Meanwhile, The Dilemma suffered a massive box office collapse. The flick drops to seventh from third last weekend, losing nearly 40 percent of its grosses. It's not Gigli, but it's not good. The Dilemma took in 5.476 million bucks stateside, and has managed only $40.6 million or so. That's with good reason, as The Dilemma was kind of terrible and depressing. The sooner it goes away, the sooner I can forget it ever happened.
Black Swan slips from sixth to eighth this weekend, showing signs of weakness for the first time in a long time. However, it took home $5.1 million and will break $100 million in the US (right now it sits at $90 million). I'd imagine Darren Aronofsky wishes he'd made a body horror a long time ago, given how wildly successful Black Swan has been and continues to be. Prediction: there'll be a lot of Black Swan Halloween costumes this year, so stock up on eye shadow now.
The Fighter sinks to ninth place, but holds tight to most of its box office. The Paramount flick managed to bring in 4.055 million bones, nudging its total take to $78 million. It won't break $100 million unless it wins a slew of awards this season, and even then, that's not likely. Still, it's made serious bank and is one of Paramount's many big successes over the past few months, alongside True Grit and No Strings Attached.
Rounding out the top ten is Yogi Bear, which will probably gross $100 million before all is said and done. Yogi added $3.165 million this weekend, pushing his total up to $92.5 million. He can make it, and probably will.
Out next weekend is yet another 3D flick with James Cameron's name on it. This one is Sanctum, and it involved a climbing expedition in some sort of cave. If that's not a recipe for claustrophobia, I don't know one. Also coming out is The Roommate, which is kind of like Single White Female meets Sorority Row, but starring actresses too old to be college girls.
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