'Little Fockers' dips in a strong post-Christmas weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Only during the holiday season can seven out of the top ten films post gains over the previous weekend. The top three films all fell from their lofty heights, but the rest of the top ten increased 10-70% from last week. Little Fockers maintained its lead, but fell the furthest, 14%, to $26.3 million. Compared to Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, this sequel both opened lower and is falling faster. Could this be the end of the Focker clan?

True Grit dipped just 1% to $24.5 million, narrowing the gap between the western remake and the comedy sequel. The Coen Brothers' latest has already exceeded the total gross of their previous western, No Country for Old Men, and it's fairly certain that True Grit will pass the $100 million mark, a first for the multi-hyphenate team.

The rest of the top ten was populated by family films and awards contenders. The broad, four-quadrant film Tron: Legacy grabbed third place with a 4% fall and another $18.3 million in the bank. Yogi Bear came next with $13 million, a 65% gain from the previous weekend, followed by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which went up 10% to $10.5 million. Tangled, which has been out for a month and a half, posted a 55% gain and $10 million, a well-deserved bump for this top-notch animated film. Gulliver's Travels, which opened to just $7 million, got up to $9 million in its second week, but I'd still call it a flop.

Among specialty films, The Fighter filled the most seats ($10 million), followed by the kinda campy Black Swan ($8.4 million) and lively historical tale The King's Speech ($7.6 million).

After an alarmingly small debut last week (an $8,650 per-screen average), Country Strong made a rare second-week rebound, earning $21,500 per screen on its two-screen release. The drama will move into wide release this Friday, so perhaps its weak first-week finish was the result of miscalibrated marketing.

The Ryan Gosling/Michelle Williams un-romance Blue Valentine made an impressive debut with a $45,000 per-screen average. The high average validates the film's position as an awards contender and puts it on the path to successful expansion. Director Mike Leigh's slice-of-life tale Another Year unspooled in six locations, earning an average of $20,000 at each. Somewhere and The Illusionist, both limited releases in their second week, each improved their per-screen averages, to $17,900 and $16,900 per-screen, respectively.

This Friday, Country Strong will be joined by Season of the Witch, Nicolas Cage's second occult-themed wide release after last summer's The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

'Little Fockers,' 'True Grit' lead in lackluster holiday box office

By Sarah Sluis

Moviegoers over the holiday weekend may have turned out for Little Fockers and True Grit, but missing under the Christmas tree was that one big-ticket item: a blockbuster. Without Avatar, box office receipts went down 44% from last year. The year-end box office also showed a lack of originality: seven of the top ten films were adaptations, remakes, or sequels.

Little Fockers, the second sequel to Meet the Parents, grabbed first place with $30.8 million. Including its midweek receipts, the comedy gathered up $45 million in less than a week. Audiences also showed excitement for True Grit, which came in second with $24.8 million and $36 million for the five-day holiday total.

Gulliver's Travels fell short, earning just $6.3 million in two days. The Jack Black riff on the classic novel opened on Christmas Day but failed to draw big audiences. A trio of films rated PG pulled in more audiences, like Tron: Legacy, which finished third with $19.1 million in its second weekend, fourth-place finished The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which dipped just 11%, and Yogi Bear, which settled into fifth place its second week with $7.8 million.

The holiday weekend also gave specialty movies a chance to shine. The Fighter and Black Swan both finished in the top ten after weeks playing to limited audiences. The Fighter earned $7.6 million in sixth place and Black Swan finished ninth with$6.2 million. The King's Speech rose three spots from last week and landed just outside of the top ten with $4.5 million, though it's still in just 700 theatres.

Focus' Somewhere opened to a $17,000 per-screen average playing on seven screens. The animated feature The Illusionist averaged $12,000 on three screens. Screen Gems' Country Strong had a soft $8,000 per-screen average on two screens. The studio will expand the drama in January but wanted to release it in 2010, perhaps for awards season reasons. According to a new metric on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has audience approval in the 80% range, compared to just 20% positive among critics, so this movie could bring in crowds with positive word-of-mouth.

This coming week should see higher-than-average weekday receipts as people take time off and students enjoy winter breaks.

Golden Globe nominations: A whole lot of 'Whaaat?'

By Sarah Sluis

So maybe this hasn't been the strongest year for movies. But does that really justify the Hollywood Foreign Press nominating the flop The Tourist in three categories? When I outlined the film's dismal box-office prospects the Friday it opened, I wondered if Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp would be enough to save the film. Well, it earned just $17 million opening weekend, but the star wattage of Jolie and Depp was enough to blind the Foreign Press Association to its negative reception stateside. I imagine the dialogue going something like this--"We need Depp and Jolie on the red carpet--we can't disappoint the people running E!'s Red Carpet show!" How big of a joke were The Tourist's nominations? They "drew audible laughter from the crowd of press and publicists assembled at the Beverly Hilton for the pre-dawn announcement," according to THR.

The other big "What" came from the HFPA's total shut-out of The Coen Brothers' True Grit. I don't see the movie until tomorrow, but it's currently tracking at 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tourist? 20%.

Another big shut-out, but one that will receive less attention, was Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, which received zero nominations. Perhaps they didn't like the movie's jabs at press conferences and foreign awards shows? Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning both turned in solid performances, but at the very least a writing or directing nomination was deserved. Never Let Me Go didn't receive any nominations (though it was better than many nominated films), but that's less of a surprise as its early, October release shows that Fox Searchlight wasn't putting too much faith in it for awards season.

The Hollywood Foreign Press did make a couple of good decisions. It nominated Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, one of the best movies I've seen all year. Jennifer Lawrence also got a nod for Winter's Bone, an Ozarks drama that's quietly powerful. But really, a lot of these nominations are a joke. The silver lining? The star power will make for an entertaining broadcast, and smart people betting on winners in awards pools may just get lucky.