The weekend after Christmas is typically one of the best movie-going periods of the year, but not so much this year as business was off 27% from 2009 when potent holdovers Avatar, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and The Blindside ruled.  Universal’s Little Fockers fell just 15% and took the crown for the second week in a row with an estimated $26.3 million.  The third film in the comedy series that began with Meet the Parents in 2000, Little Fockers has now earned $103 million, the first Universal film to top the century mark since Despicable Me in July, but its predecessor Meet the Fockers, which opened over Christmas of 2004, had earned $162.5 million by the same point in its release.

The one holiday film that has surpassed expectations is the Coen brothers’ True Grit, which dropped a miniscule 1% while repeating at #2 with an estimated $24.5 million.  With a cumulative total of $86.7 million, the $38 million production has become the Coens’ top-grossing film and looks to be far from done.

Disney’s Tron: Legacy hasn’t set the world on fire, but it has been solid, earning nearly $131 million in three weeks.  Dropping just 4%, Tron: Legacy added $18.3 million and finished third for the second week in a row.

The rest of the top ten all posted gains over last week, but ironically the increases in revenue don’t really mean very much, since they are common during the post Christmas period especially with films that appeal to kids—and even with the gains a number of the big productions aimed at the family audience remain disappointments.  Warner Bros.’ live-action/animated hybrid Yogi Bear moved up to number four with an estimated $13 million, but its $66 million cumulative after three weekends means that profitability for the $80 million production will have to wait at least until it is released on DVD.

Similarly Fox’s attempt to revive the Chronicles of Narnia franchise appears stalled as the $155 million Voyage of the Dawn Treader has earned just $87 million after four weeks, while the real “bomb” of the Christmas season is Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels, which remained in eighth place and has earned only $27.2 million in two weeks.

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Doing quite a bit better is Disney’s Tangled, which having just finished its sixth weekend of wide release, is the oldest holdover in the top ten.  The Rapunzel saga, which is the one current animated feature with a strong appeal to girls, earned an estimated $10 million and brought its total to $168 million.

Three modestly-budgeted features all made the back end of the top ten and all are certain to be profitable led by the number seven film, Paramount’s The Fighter ,which was produced for $25 million and which has already earned $46.3 million.  At #9, Darren Aronofsky’s The Black Swan, which cost just $13 million to produce, has already brought it $47.3 million, and appears to be poised to benefit from various award nominations, while the Weinstein Company’s The King’s Speech, which cost just $15 million, posted the best per-theater average in the top ten ($10.927), and came in at number 10 in spite of the fact that it was only showing in 700 theaters nationwide.