By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Weekend Report: January 23, 2011
Zonk Went the Strings of My Heart
The debut of rom-com No Strings Attached led weekend box office sales with an estimated $20.3 million. It was the session’s only national debut in what proved to be a depressed marketplace.
Also new were several late year Oscar hopefuls. The endurance saga No Way Back struggled to a disappointing $1.3 million while there were encouraging results for the downsizing tale The Company Men of $720,000 at 106 venues. There were also good returns for Bollywood’s Dhobi Ghat of $410,000 from 79 screens. Canadian Oscar submission Incendies bow in the country’s English sector to a not very stellar $33,800 at 19 sites.
Box office revenues dipped 19% from the prior weekend and a more severe 27% from 2010. Last year Avatar remained firmly on top in its 38th day of release with $34.9 million with the opening of Legion trailing at $17.5 million.
Hardly the sort of thing to bolster Natalie Portman’s Oscar prospects, No Strings Attached was roundly dismissed by the nation’s critics and opened to dullish response. Exit polls skewed decidedly female and indifferent audience feedback suggests a steep second weekend drop. Last weekend freshmen The Green Hornet and The Dilemma both experienced hard hits in their sophomore sessions.
With Oscar’s finalists unveiling in two days it was good for the grosses of The King’s Speech, The Fighter and Black Swan. Box office was also first rate for True Grit which has to date been largely passed over by critics and industry honor rolls and pundits predict no variance from the Academy. But its $138 million domestic gross to date outpaces all the presumed contendors.
Though the Oscar folk won’t be altering its award schedule this year or next, one can expect the issue to crop up again in 2013. The awards continue to be anticlimactic and, worse, capricious with voting members prone to vote for the unexpected … they too worn down by a bone crushing consensus that augers for inevitability for its winner’s roster. The inarguable situation has to create a heightened sense of anxiety for all those associated with The Social Network and make the likes of Colin Firth and Christian Bale ponder whether they’ve worn out their current welcome and should refrain from perceived campaigning in the coming weekss
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Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
No Strings Attached | Par | 20.3 (6,730) | NEW | 3018 | 20.3 |
The Green Hornet | Sony | 18.2 (5,080) | -46% | 3584 | 63.6 |
Dilemma | Uni | 9.7 (3,290) | -46% | 2943 | 33.3 |
The King’s Speech | Weinstein Co. | 8.3 (4,960) | -9% | 1680 | 57.8 |
True Grit | Par | 7.8 (2,260) | -29% | 3464 | 138.5 |
Black Swan | Fox Searchlight | 6.1 (2,540) | -27% | 2407 | 83.5 |
The Fighter | Par/Alliance | 4.5 (1,960) | -12% | 2275 | 73 |
Little Fockers | Uni | 4.3 (1,460) | -40% | 2979 | 141.1 |
Yogi Bear | WB | 4.0 (1,580) | -26% | 2510 | 88.8 |
Tron: Legacy | BV | 3.8 (1,890) | -33% | 2018 | 163.4 |
Tangled | BV | 3.1 (1,690) | -21% | 1860 | 186.4 |
Season of the Witch | Relativity | 2.2 (960) | -52% | 2307 | 22.1 |
Country Strong | Sony | 2.1 (1,470) | -42% | 1441 | 16.9 |
Chronicles of Narnia: Dawn Treader | Fox | 1.3 (1,180) | -42% | 1135 | 100.6 |
The Way Back | Newmarket | 1.3 (1,950) | NEW | 678 | 1.3 |
Gulliver’s Travels | Fox | 1.2 (1,060) | -45% | 1100 | 40 |
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows, Part 1* | WB | .95 (1,310) | -32% | 725 | 291.4 |
Blue Valentine | Weinstein Co. | .93 (3,840) | -33% | 242 | 4.5 |
The Tourist | Sony | .91 (1,040) | -46% | 875 | 65.9 |
The Company Men | Weinstein Co. | .72 (6,790) | 106 | 0.72 | |
Megamind | Par | .59 (1,840) | -11% | 320 | 146.4 |
Barney’s Version | eOne/Sony Classics | .48 (6,190) | 35% | 77 | 1 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $102.40 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | -27% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | -19% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Dhobi Ghat | UTV | .41 (5,140) | 79 | 0.41 | |
Another Year | Sony Classics | .22 (4,930) | 98% | 45 | 0.73 |
Somewhere | Focus | .20 (2,440) | -19% | 83 | 1.3 |
Rabbit Hole | Lions Gate | .18 (1,760) | -36% | 101 | 1.3 |
The Illusionist | Sony Classics | 85,700 (5,710) | 42% | 15 | 0.38 |
Incendies | eOne/Seville | 33,800 (1,780) | 19 | 2.5 | |
Evangelion: 2.0 | 11 Arts | 24,600 (1,640) | 15 | 0.02 | |
Un Vie Qui Commence | Alliance | 20,700 (1,480) | 14 | 0.02 | |
L’Autre Dumas | Seville | 11,800 (1,450) | 8 | 0.01 | |
The Woodmans | Kino Lorber | 5,400 (5,400) | 1 | 0.01 |
Yeah, you know The Social Network is not going to win right? Seriously, talk to David about this.