Natalie Portman was able to do something I didn’t think was possible this weekend, and that was to have the #1 film in the land. No Strings Attached beat The Green Hornet for top spot at the box office as audiences were in the mood to laugh this weekend. I picked all five films in the top five, although I was off on each film’s position of where they finished. On a positive, I wasn’t too far off the mark on any films gross this weekend. The big winner in limited release was Barney’s Version as it had the best per theatre average of any film in release. Here’s how the weekend broke down:
No Strings Attached debuted in 1st place with a gross of $20.3 million (I predicted a 2nd place finish and a gross of $14.5 million). No Strings Attached had a per theatre average of $6,726, which was the highest per theatre average of any film in the top ten. The gross is definitely surprising to me, as the film had an opening weekend that was higher than any of the films that I used in my prediction on Friday. See below:
2003 – Just Married – $17.5 million opening weekend
2005 – A Lot Like Love – $7.5 million opening weekend
2007 – Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium – $9.6 million opening weekend
2008 – The Other Boleyn Girl – $8.2 million opening weekend
2008 – What Happens in Vegas – $20.1 million opening weekend
2009 – Brothers – $9.5 million opening weekend
2010 – Killers – $15.8 million opening weekend
2011 – No Strings Attached – $20.3 million opening weekend
Portman comes away the big winner from this, but it certainly helps the career of Ashton Kutcher and director Ivan Reitman. For Reitman, this is the first film that he has directed that hit #1 on its opening weekend since 1989’s Ghostbusters II. No Strings Attached should hold up well next weekend as no new comedy goes into wide release, and with all the buzz that Portman has received for Black Swan, it should help this film as well. The film has more or less made back its budget, which is listed at $25 million, so it’s a profitable film for Paramount and a good way for them to start off the year.
The Green Hornet dropped from 1st place to 2nd place with a gross of $18.1 million (I predicted a 1st place finish and a gross of $15.1 million). The Green Hornet had a per theatre average of $5,050, and was down 46% from last weekend. The hold is better than I expected which is good news for the film, even though the percentage drop is the highest of any film in the top ten. There was a ton of negative buzz surrounding this film, which has seemed to subside now that it is in release. The film definitely has its work cut out for it as after two weeks it has grossed $63.4 million, but its only halfway to making back its budget of $120 million (there is no way this film makes back its budget). So that is the disappointing news for Sony, but even the studio knows that it could have been a lot worse. No one who is involved with this film walks away from it negatively and for Seth Rogen it shows that he can open a film that is not a Judd Apatow picture.
Dropping from 2nd place to 3rd place is the Vince Vaughn//Kevin James comedy The Dilemma with a gross of $9.7 million (I predicted a 4th place finish and a gross of $7.7 million). The Dilemma had a per theatre average of $3,305 and was down 45.4% from last weekend. The Dilemma has a budget of $70 million and this will be another example of a big studio film failing to make back its budget as after two weeks The Dilemma has grossed $33.3 million (not even halfway to making its budget yet). Definitely a disappointment to all involved considering the talent in front of and behind the camera.
Staying in 4th place for the second weekend in a row is the Colin Firth//Geoffrey Rush//Helena Bonham Carter historical film The King’s Speech with a gross of $9.1 million (I predicted a 5th place finish and a gross of $7.5 million). The King’s Speech had a per theatre average of $5,455 (the second highest of any film in the top ten) and the film was down only 0.2% from last weekend, which was the strongest hold of any film in the top ten. Colin Firth’s Best Actor win at the Golden Globes definitely helped The King’s Speech keep its momentum with audiences at the box office, and the film just keeps growing in buzz with each and every weekend. In nine weeks, The King’s Speech has grossed $58.6 million and its budget is listed at $15 million.
Dropping from 3rd place to 5th place is the Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin western True Grit with a gross of $8 million (I predicted a 3rd place finish and a gross of $7.9 million). True Grit had a per theatre average of $2,309 and was down 27.3% from last weekend. After five weekends, True Grit has grossed $138.6 million, from a budget of $38 million.
Dropping from 5th place to 6th place is the Natalie Portman ballet thriller Black Swan with a gross of $6.2 million (I was bang on with this prediction as I also predicted a 6th place finish and a gross of $6.2 million). Black Swan had a per theatre average of $2,576 and was down 25.7% percent from last weekend. After eight weeks of release, Black Swan has grossed $83.5 million and its budget is listed at $13 million.
Moving up from 9th place to 7th place is the Mark Wahlberg//Christian Bale drama The Fighter with a gross of $4.5 million (I predicted a 7th place finish and a gross of $3.7 million). The Fighter had a per theatre average of $1,985 and the gross was down 11.5% from last weekend. After seven weeks, The Fighter has grossed $73 million from a budget of $25 million
Dropping from 6th place to 8th place is Little Fockers with a gross of $4.3 million (I predicted an 8th place finish and a gross of $3.6 million). The film had a per theatre average of $1,475 and was down 38.9% from last weekend. The per theatre average of Little Fockers was the lowest of any film in the top ten. Here’s how the films in the franchise stack up in total gross:
2000 – Meet the Parents – $166.2 million total gross
2004 – Meet the Fockers – $279.2 million total gross
2010 – Little Fockers – $141.1 million total gross so far
As listed above, Little Fockers, with a budget listed at $100 million, has grossed $141.1 million in five weeks, but it should finish its run as the lowest grossing film of the franchise.
Yogi Bear drops from 8th place to 9th place with a gross of $4 million (I predicted a 9th place finish and a gross of $2.968 million). The film had a per theatre average of $1,618 and was down 24.3% from last weekend’s gross. After six weeks, Yogi Bear has grossed $88.8 million from a budget of $80 million.
Tron: Legacy rounds out the top ten dropping from 7th place to 10th place with a gross of $3.7 million (I predicted a 10th place finish and a $2.912 million gross). The film had a per theatre average of $1,837 and was down 34.7% from last weekend. After six weeks, Tron: Legacy has grossed $163.2 million and it inches a little closer to making back its budget of $170 million.
In limited release:
The Way Back – This film is from acclaimed director Peter Weir and stars Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Mark Strong and is about a group of prisoners who escape from a Soviet labour camp and try to make their way back home without being caught or killed by the land that they have to cross. The Way Back grossed $1.465 million from 650 theatres giving it a disappointing per theatre average of $2,254.
The Company Men – This film has a great pedigree as it is written and directed by John Wells and stars Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones. Affleck’s character is a high-powered executive who gets laid off and has to start his life over again and do jobs he was not trained for. The Company Men grossed $767,000 from 106 theatres giving the film a per theatre average of $7,236. It has grossed $810,000 in its limited run.
The Housemaid – This foreign film is about a young woman who is hired as a housemaid and begins an affair with the father of a family. She soon becomes pregnant with his child and is forced to have an abortion, which leads the housemaid on a path of revenge. The Housemaid had a gross of $18,200 from 2 theatres giving the film a per theatre average of $9,100.
Barney’s Version with Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman was the big winner in limited release, which I’m sure was helped by Giamatti’s Best Actor win at the Golden Globes. The film grossed $161,000 in its second week of release in the U.S. from 16 theatres. This gave Barney’s Version a per theatre average of $10,063, which was the best per theatre average of any film in release. So far Barney’s Version has grossed $303,000 and has a ways to go to make back its $30 million budget.
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance has not released its box office gross as of this writing.
So to recap, here were my predictions:
The Green Hornet – $15.1 million
No Strings Attached – $14.5 million
True Grit – $7.9 million
The Dilemma – $7.7 million
The King’s Speech – $7.5 million
And here are the actual numbers:
No Strings Attached – $20.3 million
The Green Hornet – $18.1 million
The Dilemma – $9.7 million
The King’s Speech – $9.1 million
True Grit – $8 million
My predictions were off by $12.5 million.
Next weekend, No Strings Attached will try to stay in 1st place for a second weekend in a row against the Anthony Hopkins horror film The Rite and the Jason Statham action film The Mechanic. Check out Biff Bam Pop next Friday to read my predictions!
