What ‘True Grit’ Has in Common With ‘The Blind Side’ (I wish I didn’t have to read news like this)

True Grit and The Blind Side make for unlikely bedfellows, but they share a common attribute they started off slow before turning into steady box-office campfires. Both films didn’t come in No. 1 at the box office until their third frame, an unusual feat. Over the weekend, Paramount and Skydance Prods.’ True Grit bumped Universal’s Little Fockers from the top spot at the domestic box office, grossing an estimated $15 million from 3,124 theaters. True Grit’s cume through Sunday was $110.4 million, making it one of the top-grossing Westerns of all time, and there’s no sign of it slowing down. True Grit ($15 million) finally overtook Little Fockers ($13.8 million) for the No. 1 position this weekend at the North American box office, according to early studio reports. How It All Went Down: With apologies to Erasmus, in the land of the maligned, the one-eyed man is king: January is often a burial ground for critically-panned films, and in such a disreputable climate, the Oscar-bait True Grit had little difficultly ruling the roost. Critics hammered Nic Cage’s newest flick, medieval action disasterpiece Season of the Witch . Close behind “Grit” is “Little Fockers,” which has been battling with the desert drama at the box office for the past few weeks. Audiences didn’t have much interest either, handing over little more than $10 million to give the movie a weak third place debut. The top Western is Dances With Wolves, which grossed roughly $184 million domestically. After two weeks in very limited release it hasn’t generated much buzz and the $15 million price tag may prove to be too high to recover. Just as key, the film’s reach has extended beyond the biggest cities to other markets.

We’ll get to them in a moment. Notably, younger moviegoers gave the film an A- CinemaScore, a grade which usually sparks particularly strong word-of-mouth. The comedy has so far made $124 million, which is nothing to sneeze at. A surge in international sales over the last few weeks has helped the production reach possible profitability, but it’s a less than stellar finish for the lackluster fantasy franchise. True Grit , $15 million; $110.4 million, third week 2. The gory ballet thriller “Black Swan” finished the weekend in fifth place. For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below: The film, which has scored buzz not only for Portman’s breakthrough performance but for the flick’s racy sex scene with Mila Kunis, has a total estimated haul of $61 million. Check out everything we’ve got on “True Grit,” “Little Fockers” and “Season of the Witch.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com. Country Strong , $7.3 million; $7.4 million, third week 7. The Oscar hopeful has so far made $33.3 million.

What’s popular here is popular there. While Westerns can have a tough time at the foreign box office, Joel and Ethan Coen have an avid following internationally. The movie cost about $38 million to produce. 

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