'The Rite' Takes Friday Box-Office Lead, but Can It Hold Off 'Strings'?
Plus, the Oscar bump is in effect
Warner Bros.'s exorcism feature The Rite (my review here) lead the Friday box-office estimates with $5.3 million and what looks to be a $15 million weekend. However, should sales not hold steady, the film, which was budgeted at a reported $37 million, could have trouble holding off last weekend's #1 No Strings Attached.
The Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman comedy scored $4.4 million on Friday and will likely finish around $14 million. A slight bump upwards and a small decline for The Rite would give the Ivan Reitman directed feature a second week at the top as well as a decent 30% drop, give or take.
The week's other new wide release, the Jason Statham and Ben Foster actioner The Mechanic (my review here), pulled in an estimated $3.6 million from 2,703 theaters, which means we're looking at something like a $12 million opening. Not too bad for a film CBS reportedly paid $5 million to distribute.
The rest of the story has to do with films getting the "Oscar bump". Earlier this week I received an email from Fandango telling me The King's Speech, which led all nominees with 12, saw a 76% increase in ticket sales on Fandango since the Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday. On Friday the film came in fifth with $2.8 million and an expected $9 million weekend if not more, which will have it besting last week's result of $7.8 million.
Elsewhere, True Grit earned an estimated $1.9 million and Natalie Portman saw her second film in the top ten, Black Swan, pull in an estimated $1.4 million followed by The Fighter with $976,000. Speaking of Black Swan, did you watch this effects reel I posted yet?
Outside the top ten, Fox Searchlight finally released 127 Hours in more theaters, bumping it from 69 theaters last week to 916 theaters this weekend. The Danny Boyle-directed feature came in twelfth on Friday with an estimated $600,000 and a likely $1.8 million weekend, which will bring its overall cume to roughly $13.1 million.
Additionally, Roadside's Biutiful (my review here) was finally released to the masses outside of its limited Oscar run, and the film which earned Javier Bardem a much-deserved Best Actor nomination, pulled in $115,000 on Friday which should translate to roughly $400,000 for the weekend and a $7,000 per theater average from 57 locations.
I've included the estimated Friday top ten directly below and will be back here on Sunday morning with a complete recap.
Remember, today we'll get word on who won the Directors Guild of America top honors and tomorrow I'll be live-blogging the Screen Actors Guild Awards starting around 3:30 PM PST. If you haven't yet voted in my SAG Award poll to predict the winners you can do so right here.
- The Rite – $5.3 million
- No Strings Attached – $4.4 million
- The Mechanic – $3.6 million
- The Green Hornet – $2.9 million
- The King's Speech – $2.8 million
- True Grit – $1.9 million
- The Dilemma – $1.7 million
- Black Swan – $1.4 million
- The Fighter – $976,000
- Yogi Bear – $587,000
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Yogi Bear is really managing to hang around isn't it?
That's a pretty low result for The Rite; exorcism films have been pretty reliable lately. I wonder if they too have run their course, or do people just want to save their money early in the year? On the flip side, that's a very nice result for No Strings; I had it falling 40% but it looks like it's holding on even better.
The King's Speech also had a big expansion, so its bigger numbers were to be expected. Its PTA should be roughly level with last weekend. And a very disappointing (but not surprising) result for 127 Hours. I guess it's just the idea of watching James Franco by himself for 1.5 hours (which isn't even really the case at all), coupled with not wanting to watch the amputation scene that's keeping people away. That's really too bad because I think it's one of the best films of the year; I'm seeing it again this afternoon.
Another slow January weekend. Oh well.
What do you guys think will be the top grossing film of February?
I think Just Go With It will be the first film to cross $100 million this year with probably $110-120 million. I also think I Am Number Four and Unknown could each gross higher than $80 million.
I'm afraid we'll be waiting until the March 4 combo of Rango and The Adjustment Bureau for a real standout movie, althought Just Go With It should make money given Sandler's track record.
I'll likely be visiting the arthouse joints exclusively until March.
Green Hornet seems to be creeping to 100M.
The only movie that looks to be worth seeing in February is I Am Number Four, so I will see that.
Cedar Rapids is pretty good.
I Am Number Four looks too, I dunno, ordinary. The plot is too similar to Jumper, and Alex Pettyfer's acting looks really bland.
If Cedar Rapids gets an expansion, I might check it out.
Gotta wonder how much is Justin Bieber movie gonna make
To quote a character from True Grit, "I do not entertain hypotheticals. I find the real world to be perplexing enough as it is."
vexing* Excuse me
Based on Jonas Bros. Concert Tour, not much!
The Oscar bump. Seems hardly what it use to be.
On the other hand, True Grit should be able to surpass Little Fockers by the end of the weekend.
No romcoms to battle against with, No Strings Attached drops 30%
I'd be really disappointed if Black Swan couldn't trickle over $100 at this point.
If WB can keep Due Date hanging around in theatres long enough for that film to just make it across the threshold, FOX Searchlight can do the same with Black Swan.