Fill my wallet you sonuvabitch!
In the war for the Christmas box office bonanza, the vile and godless Little Fockers ultimately came out on top, though its victory was ultimately a fairly hollow one. It did a little over $34 million during the weekend period, and just over $48 million for the five day stint. The last movie in this series, Meet the Fockers, did $46 million during the weekend, and over $70 million for its five day opening, in 2004. So, yeah, kind of a downturn, but still good enough to win the weekend in what was ultimately a pretty crappy weekend attendance wise. For comparison, Gulliver's Travels, Jack Black's 3D raping of Jonathan Swift's satirical classic (which opened on Saturday, Christmas Day) only managed just under $8 million. Could've been worse for the Fockers, I guess.
Still, not all bad news abound, as True Grit, the Coen Brothers' adaptation of the classic western novel, came in second with $25.6 million during the weekend, and $36.8 million for the five day stretch. That's the highest opening for any Coen movie to date, and some are saying projects to their first $100 million movie. I don't think True Grit is by any means their best film, but it might be their most commercially accessible, so it'd be nice to see that actually result in some long-term success.
On the limited/specialty/indie front, The King's Speech finally went into wider release this weekend, showing on 700 screens and just narrowly missing the top 10 this weekend, with an 11th spot and $4.6 million at the box office. Black Swan and The Fighter continued to perform extremely well in their wider releases, while Rabbit Hole and The Tempest continued to flounder a bit, pulling in fairly low per-screen averages across the board. Newcomer indie releases Somewhere and The Illusionist both did quite well on just a handful of screens, posting per-screen averages of more than $16,000 each. Country Strong, the Gwyneth Paltrow country music drama that looks hastily born from Crazy Heart's successful Oscar run, did a little bit more modestly, with around $8000 each on two screens. That one seems like it'll do better once it actually opens somewhere where country music is, you know, a thing.
Oh, right, this was supposed to be a shorter report, wasn't it? Onto the list! I have drinking to do!
Box Office Results: Christmas!
 | 1. Little Fockers $34 million / $48.3 million / NEW There seemed to me to be little doubt this would win the weekend, but the slightly lackluster numbers compared to the previous forays into Focker-dom lead me to believe that people's desire to see Ben Stiller in painfully uncomfortable situations and Robert De Niro get stuck in the junk with needles is not as high as the studio may have hoped. Good. |
 | 2. True Grit $25.6 million / $36.8 million / NEW Nice to see the Coens with a legit success on their hands, even if that success is tempered slightly by the loss to those blasted Fockers. Who wants to see a crossover film where Rooster Cogburn and Greg Focker engage in an old fashioned gun duel? Hell, I'd take Mattie Ross against Focker. |
 | 3. TRON: Legacy $20.1 million / $88.2 million A bit of a slip, but not surprising given the new competition, and the fact that most of the nerds who were super excited about TRON saw it week one, and have been fapping to Olivia Wilde photos since. Or, in some cases, Jeff Bridges photos... |
 | 4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader $10.8 million / $63.9 million Only a 12% drop from last week, though that makes a certain amount of sense given the holiday. As we all know, Jesus Lion is the reason for the season. |
 | 5. Yogi Bear $8.8 million / $36.7 million How many Christmases were ruined by parents unwilling to steer their children away from the horror than is Yogi Bear? We likely won't know until the December suicide statistics are released next month. |
 | 6. The Fighter $8.5 million / $27.5 million With a performance like this, I don't see how Mark Wahlberg could possibly lose out on an Oscar nomination. |
 | 7. Gulliver's Travels $7.2 million / NEW Oh, right, this movie happened. Moving on... |
 | 8. Black Swan $6.6 million / $29 million This is Darren Aronofsky's highest grossing movie in North America, and I expect once it releases internationally, it'll cross that line too--currently it's The Wrestler, with $44 million worldwide. I'm legit shocked this hasn't released in Europe yet, considering it's a friggin' ballet movie by an art house director. This ought to be like catnip for them! |
 | 9. Tangled $6.5 million / $143.8 million Probably the last time I'll be talking about Tangled, so one last plea. Amid all the 3D junk currently being marketed as "family entertainment," this is the only one worth a damn. If you haven't taken the kids to see it yet, do so. |
 | 10. The Tourist $5.7 million / $41.2 million Probably the last time I'll be talking about The Tourist. Good. |
Source: Box Office Mojo
It's sad to see Ben Stiller end 2010 with Little Fockers after he started it with a solid performance in Greenberg.
When Olivia Wilde returns to House, she has to keep that haircut. Finally she looks sexy instead of washed-out.
Looking back now, I believe 2010 will go down in history as a largely disappointing year. On the surface 2011 looks better, but we won't know for sure until the films are in the theaters.
Little Fockers... at number 1... sigh....
Glad to see that Gulliver's Travels is crashing and burning. Can't wait for True Grit to open in the UK in February. And Black Swan is out in the middle of January. A month that also has The Green Hornet, 127 Hours and The Kings Speech making their UK releases. Big month.
Alex, any idea how much HP7 Pt 1 is doing worldwide? I've got money saying it'll bite the dust at $900 million.
Anyways, that's all for me! I'm off to watch Scott Pilgrim on Blu-Ray, which only just been released this second in the UK!
Based on how terrible every Ice T film has been I think we are a fine position to say, "Hell No, G." No if it had been 50 Cent you might have a case.
Thanks, Alex for doing the list this week. I didn't know if you would do it with the holidays happening but you did and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate it.