Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, True Grit
Anthony Hopkins’ THE RITE Tops Slow Weekend Box Office
At no. 6 this weekend, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s True Grit scored $7.6m, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Up 4% from a week ago despite the loss of 344 theaters, the Coen brothers’ acclaimed Western stars Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, in addition to Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. Total: $148.38m. Cost: $38m.
In addition to helping out True Grit and The King’s Speech, last week’s Oscar nominations were also good for Black Swan and The Fighter. And Javier Bardem’s Biutiful, which grossed $461k at 57 locations for a $8,088 per-theater average. (Yogi Bear’s surprisingly sturdy performance, however, has nothing to do with the Oscars.)
Next in line was Ron Howard’s flop The Dilemma, featuring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, with $5.47m (-40%) at no. 7. Total: $40.63m. Cost: $70m.
At no. 8, Darren Aronofsky-Natalie Portman’s Black Swan brought in $5.1m, down only -13%. Total: $90.7m. Cost: $13m.
Rounding out the top twelve were:
- Mark Wahlberg-Christian Bale’s The Fighter with $4.05m (-2.5%). Total: $78.37m. Cost: $25m.
- Eric Brevig’s Yogi Bear with $3.16m (-17%, a low drop-off rate despite the loss of nearly 400 locations). Total: $92.5m. Cost: $80m.
- Jeff Bridges-Garrett Hedlund ’s TRON: Legacy with $2.54m (-30%, which is not at all bad following the loss of more than 500 theaters). Total: $166.74m. Cost: $170m.
- Disney’s Tangled with $2.52m (-18%). Total: $189.57m. Cost: $260m.
Gone from the top twelve this weekend were Robert De Niro-Owen Wilson-Ben Stiller’s Little Fockers, Dominic Sena-Nicolas Cage’s Season of the Witch, and Gwyneth Paltrow-Tim McGraw-Garrett Hedlund’s Country Strong.
A couple of those will probably resurface during the week, while Yogi Bear and Tangled lie low.
Among the top-twelve movies, The Rite had the highest per-theater average, $5,027. Yogi Bear had the lowest, $1,484.
Also among the top twelve (except for newcomers The Rite and The Mechanic, and the expanded The King’s Speech), The Dilemma posted the highest weekend-to-weekend drop-off rate, -40%. Apart from The King’s Speech, True Grit was the only movie to post attendance gains, +4%.
Photo: True Grit (Wilson Webb / Paramount Pictures)