Box office overflows with 'Tron: Legacy,' 'How Do You Know,' and 'Yogi Bear'

By Sarah Sluis

We're in the home stretch of the holiday box office season. Three films go into wide release today, and they'll have just five days in the sun before another trio of wide releases (Little Fockers, True Grit, and Gulliver's Travels) bombards holiday audiences.

Disney's been promoting TRON: Legacy (3,451 theatres, including 2,424 in 3D) for years at Comic-Con, and the studio is counting on its long-term marketing efforts to result in a $40 million+ payday over opening weekend. The attempt to "mature" the material from 1982's TRON "[turns] out to be goofier than the original's overeager earnestness," critic Ethan Alter notes. "In trying to make TRON matter to a new generation, Legacy winds up squandering the best thing about the original: its sense of fun." While the story may not be the movie's strong suit, the visuals "lightcycle" races are stunning, and Daft Punk's score sets a dark, techno mood.

The eminently successful James L. Brooks falls short of achieving another masterpiece in How Do You Know (2,483 theatres), which stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, and Jack Nicholson. His "faltering" hand, according to critic David Noh, results in a "particularly uncertain yet pushy and often tone-deaf romantic comedy." The actors (who reportedly accounted for close to $50 million of the talent budget) earn their keep, but to what end? "It is almost a criminal waste that both Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd give two of their most heartfelt, charming performances," Noh sighs.

If the idea of hearing Yogi Bear (Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (Justin Timberlake) singing odes to "pic-a-nic baskets" sounds like punishment, not entertainment, you're not one of the many families expected to turn out this weekend for the spectacle, which will unspool in 3,515 theatres, including 2,011 in 3D. Alter pegs this film as about a 5 out of 10 "on the scale of live-action updates of old cartoons," which is to say it's a "relentlessly uninspired and proudly juvenile production," but "doesn't feature a trio of CGI-rodents singing bad pop songs at a pitch only dogs (and kids under the age of eight) can tolerate."

Rabbit Hole (5 theatres) stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as parents coping with the death of their child. Though the film has drawn raves for Kidman's performance, critic Frank Lovece wasn't one of those applauding. Except for one moment of "layered subtlety," Kidman's "performance [is] so controlled that even when [the couple] Becca and Howie have their inevitable shouting match, it feels forced and false."

Because we're in high season for movies, a number of released films are still gathering steam. The Fighter is making the biggest jump, expanding into 2,503 theatres after opening in just four last week. Black Swan, which already had a spot in the top ten with just 90 theatres, will expand to 959 theatres. The Tempest, which made a so-so debut last week, will stay specialty, spreading to just 21 theatres. For all of these films, success or failure will be determined in the final weeks of 2010.