No Strings Bounces Green Hornet in Modest Box Office Brawl

By Chris Kavan - 01/24/11 at 10:11 AM CT

Has the romantic comedy curse finally been lifted? Well, I'm not about to declare the drought over. Even though No Strings did manage to take the top spot at the box office, the low-key $20.3 million debut was nothing to get excited about.

For Ashton Kutcher, it falls right in the range of his previous rom-coms, What Happens in Vegas ($20.2 million) and Just Married ($17.5 million) while this is new territory for Natalie Portman. Still, unlike last year's Razzie / Oscar contender Sandra Bullock, I don't think she has to be too worried about this putting a damper on Black Swan. Unsurprisingly, 70% of the audience was female - mostly over 25.

The Green Hornet held up relatively well, dropping 46% from its opening with $18.1 million and a $63.4 million total. The superhero comedy surpassed Kick-Ass to become king of the screwball crime-fighter genre.

In third was The Dilemma dropping 45% with $9.7 and a $33.4 million total. While it did hold better than Couples Retreat, the mediocre film will probably be lucky to break the $50 million mark.

The King's Speech enjoyed the best nationwide holdover, barely dropping from last week earning another $9.2 million to top out at $58.6 million. In terms of royalty, The King's Speech has now toppled The Queen in terms of box office returns, and if it continue to hold over this well coming into the major awards, could be looking at $100 million total.

True Grit continued to show its mettle, earning another $8 million, down only 27%, now at $138.6 million. It continues to gain on arch-rival Little Fockers, which now stands at $141.2 million and if the trend continues, expect True Grit to emerge the victor in a week or two.

Black Swan and The Fighter also continue their awards-fueled runs. Black Swan stands at $83.6 million taking in another $6.2 million in 6th while The Fighter earned $4.5 million for a $73 million total.

Christian Bale didn't have the power to summon audiences like The Dark Knight, as The Way Back was way down - earning only $1.47 million on 678 screen, even worse than Rescue Dawn did at 500 locations.

Next week brings us The Mechanic and The Rite, but remains to be seen whether Jason Statham or Anthony Hopkins can impress the masses.