Image Credit: Wilson Webb; Glen WilsonAfter a few relatively soft box-office weekends, Hollywood is clearly dreaming of a green Christmas. This holiday week sees the one-two punch of prestigious Oscar contenders and not-so-prestigious, but perennially popular, family entertainment. The Coen Brothers’ single-handed Western revival True Grit rides into wide release today, but will face stiff competition from Little Fockers, the Meet the Parents threequel. The Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro comedy probably won’t let bad reviews slow it down on its way to taking the top spot, letting perfectly innocuous holiday viewing win out over the revenge-based oater. But the Coens might also find they’ve run their horses into the light-bike trail left behind by TRON: Legacy’s residual success in its second week — the long-in-the-making sequel pulled in a respectable, if not mind-blowing, $43.6 million last weekend. This would of course mean that it will pit Jeff Bridges against Jeff Bridges (against CGI young Jeff Bridges).
Black Swan will be expanding into over 1,400 theaters today, as well, and it remains to be seen whether Natalie Portman’s psycho-sexual ballet film will be able to maintain the tremendous per-screen averages it has seen in past weeks. The King’s Speech will also be experiencing its first major expansion after a few weekends of limited-theater stutters. Jack Black’s 3-D version of Gulliver’s Travels hits theaters on Christmas, but its impact will likely be more on the Lilliputian side than the Brobdingnagian. The fantasy-comedy is opening in fewer theaters than either of this week’s other two major releases, but Black’s antics might still pull in a healthy kid audience.
Opening in limited release this week is Sofia Coppola’s fourth feature, Somewhere, and the animated film The Illusionist. Gwyneth Paltrow’s twangy Country Strong opens in Nashville and will have its awards-qualifying run on one screen in Los Angeles starting today, before opening wide on Jan. 7.
Little fockers gonna take it.
Yeah. Cause part two was sooooo funny.
and people are generally stupid when it comes to picking what entertainment to spend their money on.
What he said. . .
I chose to see True Grit instead. Money well worth it. Everybody go see it instead of Litter Fuc, er, um, Fockers.
If Little Fockers does more business, it proves how stupid this country has become. Oh yeah, and this proves Robert De Niro is washed up
Where’s the usual list of the predicted top 5 films with their predicted grosses??
I’m guessing we won’t see that until Thursday.
I hope True Grit does well. Steinfeld is going to be a star.
Great movie and Seinfeld is great and AsiaMarriages was amazing
After the dreadful reviews that Little Fockers is receiving, I won’t be seeing it. It will turn out to be this season’s Grown-Ups. It will be a comedy that makes undeserving money despite it’s horrible look and its excessive gross-out humor. Over my Christmas break, I plan on seeing Tron: Legacy, True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The King’s Speech and any other indie film that gets released in my area.
Congratulations on being a douche!
I honestly think that Tron, Narnia, and Tangled may pull ahead of Yogi Bear and Gulliver’s Travels.
I hope to see The Fighter, Black Swan, The King’s Speech, and True Grit before the holidays are over.
I’m thinking Tangled is going to be the biggest family film this weekend, Yogi is going down.
Because it has already been out since Thanksgiving, it may not. But I think that it definitely has a chance to pull ahead.
I don’t care what family film gains the most money, really. I just want Yogi and Gulliver to go down.
I think the box office will be soft again, but past week films will maintain…Little Fockers will most likey be number one and Tron will be number 2…Tron has been pulling in some strong weekday numbers.
“…limited theater stutters.”
Is this a pun? Because if it isn’t one, let me tell you that its weekend PTA’s have been phenomenal.
Anyway, Little Fockers will (unfortunately) take it. But I wouldn’t count out Tron pulling a repeat.
I hope my Coen brothers get a box office hit out of True Grit. The budget is 35 million, so I just hope they get a decent opening since Westerns don’t usually do well, especially overseas.
The Focker movie series is focking awful and the stars in it prostituting themslves in the worst way! I would not watch them even for free on TV. I hope it goes down in flames and lets more deserving films get ahead
It’s amazing to me that that many talented, can’t possibly need the money, stars agreed to make it.
Little Fockers for sure will win the weekend. It has more of an appeal then True Grit, even though True Grit is probably the better movie.
True Grit was a classic…a great, great movie.
I hope True Grit does well, I enjoyed it and if it flops its a shame.
I just saw Black Swan (awesome) and The Fighter (good) and now I desperately need to see The king’s Speech (despite the expansion it is still nowhere near me, I’m probably going to wait until January like with Rabbit Hole and I love You Phillip Morris for those three to be wide) and The Illusionist, which probably will never come to my theater.
We live in a America full of soft girly type men..So I exspect little fockers to win.
Camille, your wish is the box office’s command. True Grit is going to do approx. 35 million in its opening weekend. I do beleve it’s the big movie for men and their wives, girlfriends, etc. I work around them all day long and that’s the one I’ve heard mentioned alot as the weekend approaches.
At my job I’m one of the few girls around alot of men, Kel. And the men I work around aren’t girly, whimpy, or soft. All of them are married or seriously dating women. I don’t know if any of them are going to see Little Fockers but it is somewhat of a family film. So I imagine some of the married guys may take in Lil Fockers as well as the ones I know are planning on seeing True Grit this weekend. You don’t have to be a girly man to enjoy Little Fockers. I’m sure ALL men agree with that statement.