‘True Grit’ Dethrones ‘Fockers’ to Top Weekend Box Office With $15 Million (here’s something you don’t see every day)

Paramount and Skydance Prods.’ True Grit wrested the weekend box office crown from Universal’s Little Fockers for the first time, grossing an estimated $15 million from 3,124 theaters and upping its take to $110.4 million. True Grit has quickly galloped to one of the top grossing Westerns of all time, and shows no sign of slowing down to a trot. It’s unusual for a film to move up to No. 1 in its third weekend. Somewhat surprising was the performance of “Season of the Witch” in third. Debuting with $10.7 million, the Nic Cage fantasy flick had a significant Friday to Saturday bump even with an eye-popping and discouraging C+ cinemascore rating. Heading into the weekend, expectations were muted for both Season of the Witch and Sony/Screen Gems’ new nationwide entry Country Strong , which grossed an estimated $7.3 million to come in No. 6 as it expanded from a two-city run to 1,424 theaters. In its third week of release, True Grit won the weekend with $15 million — a decline of 39 percent. Among newcomers, Nicolas Cage’s supernatural thriller “Season of the Witch” opened at No. 3 with $10.7 million. Attendance is down 23% from the same period last year, and two newcomers this were no help. It was a slow weekend overall compared to the same frame a year ago, when Avatar lit up the domestic box office with a $50 million gross. Cage’s Season of the Witch proved to be doomed among critics and customers. Fourth place went to “Tron Legacy” with another $9.8 million and $147.9 million to date. The lightcycle ride is beginning to slow down, but whether we’ll really get a third film in the series remains to be seen.

The supernatural Nicholas Cage vehicle “Season of the Witch” landed in the theaters in third place. Tron: Legacy from Disney wound up in the fourth spot with $9.8 million and a total cumulative of $147.9 million. With the 3-D and IMAX components continuing to enhance the revenue generating potential for the sci-fi re-boot, Tron has benefitted from providing a summer-style movie-going experience during the winter season. The Crusades-era thriller earned recommendations from 4% of the nation’s critics, according to the review site RottenTomatoes.com, a score almost unheard of in the age of fan blogs. The movie, projected to earn $12 million this weekend, took in $10.7 million, according to studio estimates from Hollywood.com. “Country Strong” wasn’t far behind “Swan,” however, expanding nationally for $7.3 million. The video-game fantasy flick — and second movie after “Grit” in the top five featuring Jeff Bridges — “Tron Legacy” spent the weekend in fourth place. The follow-up to the game-changing 1982 flick snapped up $9.8 million. The comedy has so far made $124 million, which is nothing to sneeze at. Sony Pictures Classics’ Another Year grossed an estimated $91,791 from seven theaters for a location average of $13,113 and cume of $308,245. Focus Features’ Somewhere grossed an estimated $159,600 from 17 theaters for a location average of $9,386 and cume of $659,900.

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