'Fockers' Take Top Spot, But Western Shows 'True Grit'

Little Fockers, the second sequel to Meet the Parents, took the top spot over the Christmas weekend, with $34.8 million in grosses.  Since opening on December 22nd, the film has grossed $48.3 million.  This is well behind the prior film in the series, Meet the Fockers, likely owing to the long delay since Fockers was in theatres and abysmal critic reviews and word of mouth.  The film will undoubtedly earn back its $100 million budget, but it may be a little while before we see this tired franchise extended further.

Second place went to True Grit, the Coen brothers' western opus based on the novel of the same name.  The film had a $25.6 million weekend, bringing its total grosses to $36.8 million so far.  With a $38 million budget, True Grit is a hop, skip and jump away from profitability (if, of course, we ignore the fact that not all the money goes to the studio).  The film has received outstanding reviews and word of mouth is the strongest of any film since Inception this past summer, so it should hold well over the coming weeks.

In third place was Tron: Legacy, which fell 54% in its second weekend.  The film pulled in $20.1 million, bringing its total grosses to $88.3 million to-date.  Its opening weekend was on the low side of Disney's estimates, so the studio is likely relieved that it didn't see the type of week-over-week drops that large tent pole films usually do.  The film is family-friendly, and has undoubted cool factor, so should continue to do reasonable business until kids return to school.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader had a remarkably small 12.8% drop week-over-week, thanks to a theme that resounded well with holiday movie goers.  The film is still going to have a long road to profitability, grossing $10.8 million over the weekend and just under $64 million to date.  With a $155 million production budget, producers Walend Media and distributor Fox are likely thanking their lucky stars for the $128 million the film has brought in overseas so far.

The top five was rounded out by Yogi Bear, which fell 46.4% to $8.8 million its second weekend.  With $37 million in total grosses after two weekends during a very family-friendly season, the film will have to rely on home video and long-term licensing deals to recoup its $80 million production budget for Warner Bros.  

Falling outside the top five was Jack Black's absolutely awful-looking Gulliver's Travels, which opened with $7.2 million.  The story didn't connect with Black's typical audience and Black didn't connect with the classic story's audience, making for a situation where none of the target demographics were happy.  With a reported budget of around $130 million, Gulliver's Travels will likely go down as the biggest flop of 2010.