By Chris Kavan - 01/10/11 at 10:56 AM CT
While it was a modest start to the new year, at least True Grit was finally able to top the box office.
The Coen Brothers' western earned $15 million and now stands at $110.4 million. The films has now topped the grosses of Maverick, The Unforgiven and Tombstone - though attendance numbers are still lower due to higher ticket prices. As far as westerns go, this ranks as one of the best of the last few decades.
In second place was Little Fockers dropping 46% to take in $13.8 million and $124 million total. As a comparison, Meet the Parents had made $204.3 million in the same time frame and had roughly double the attendance.
In third place was Season of the Witch at $10.7, which may not sound great, but given the medieval setting and, well, Nicolas Cage, it was actually a pretty good opening. At least it opened better than some of Cage's other films, notably The Wicker Man, Bangkok Dangerous and Next.
In 4th, TRON: Legacy continues to near the $150 million mark, earning $9.8 million for a $147.9 million. In fifth, and holding on to the biggest audience with a modest 6% drop, was The Black Swan. The dark ballet thriller now stands at $61.5 million, adding an additional $8.35 million over the weekend.
Opening to a nation-wide audience, Country Strong drew in a largely female audience to land in 6th place with $7.3 million. Meanwhile, The Fighter and The King's Speech continued adding to their totals. The Fighter added $7 million and now stands at $57.8 million while The King's Speech, still in only 788 theaters, moved up to 8th place and added $6.8 million bringing its total to $33.3 million.
Next weeks two big openings are the Vince Vaughn/Kevin James comedy The Dilemma and the Seth Rogan/Jay Chou duo in The Green Hornet. With the buzz on Green Hornet getting better, it'll be interesting to see where it winds up.
