The box office results for the weekend of January 21st -23rd has romantic-comedy “No Strings Attached” hitting the top spot. Without any other new releases entering the arena, the holdovers maintained their respective spots. Here are the studio estimates:
1. No Strings Attached ($20.3 million)
2. The Green Hornet ($18.1 million)
3. The Dilemma ($9.7 million)
4. The King’s Speech ($9.1 million)
5. True Grit 2010 ($8 million)
6. Black Swan ($6.2 million)
7. The Fighter ($4.5 million)
8. Little Fockers ($4.4 million)
9. Yogi Bear ($4 million)
10. TRON: Legacy ($3.7 million)
Analysis
In what was a lackluster weekend overall at the box office, “No Strings Attached” quietly snatched away the top ranking from Green Hornet. This is a mild surprise, for “Strings” came in with an R-rating. Although, the critics were split and the unique plot enticed more of the adult crowd to check this out. Plus, there wasn’t anything new competing with the Ivan Reitman directed flick. Bottom line is, the production budget was just $25 million. Paramount will earn a modest profit during the flick’s theatrical run.
Round two for “The Green Hornet” and “The Dilemma” will be considered average at best. Both flicks dropped less than 50% from their opening weekends. Usually that is considered decent. However, these two are only halfway toward their production budgets (you do the math). Quick refresher, in most cases, a flick has to double its production budget before it starts to see profits.
“The Fighter” currently holds the longest streak in the top ten with 7 weeks. An award darling, the flick is now up to $73 million domestically.
“Black Swan” and “The King’s Speech” still holding strong. Each only had a slight drop from last weekend. Heck, we’ll even give “Yogi Bear” some love before it falls out of the top ten. The Warner Bros. CGI flick held up better than expected – yet it will still fail to turn a profit at theaters – improving its domestic total to $88 million. Sure it eclipsed its production budget of $80 million, but the international box office is not providing the “Steve Nash” assist this flick needed.
Flop Alert: “The Dilemma”. See above and get out your calculator if need be (no shame in it). Sleeper Hit: “No Strings Attached”. Look for this guy to reach around $50-$60 million domestically. Doubling your budget, doubles the respective studio’s pleasure (that was a very cute line…thank you).
This coming weekend will hopefully spice up this lame box office (and report). CBS Films – who desperately need a hit – pulls in with the action flick “The Mechanic“. Also invading is the thriller starring Anthony Hopkins in “The Rite“. Sounds like a boys’ night out at the theaters. Reviews will be right here kids.
