The new exorcism-themed horror movie The Rite topped the box office with a mediocre $15 million, but it wasn’t nearly enough to exorcise the demons that have infested the box office so far in 2011. In the latest in a string of disappointing weekends, the box office was down 15% from last year when Avatar topped the frame with $31.3 million and 8% from two years ago when Taken debuted with $24.7 million. Snowstorms in the East helped depress attendance, but the lack of competition from football on TV undoubtedly helped offset part of the weather-related decline.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): January 28 - 30, 2011 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Rite | $15,005,000 | 2,985 | $5,027 | $15,005,000 | 1 |
| 2 | No Strings Attached | $13,650,000 | 3,022 | $4,517 | $39,742,000 | 2 |
| 3 | The Mechanic | $11,500,000 | 2,703 | $4,255 | $11,500,000 | 1 |
| 4 | The Green Hornet | $11,500,000 | 3,524 | $3,263 | $78,800,000 | 3 |
| 5 | The King's Speech | $11,102,000 | 2,557 | $4,342 | $72,217,000 | 10 |
| 6 | True Grit | $7,600,000 | 3,120 | $2,436 | $148,388,000 | 6 |
| 7 | The Dilemma | $5,476,000 | 2,901 | $1,888 | $40,634,000 | 3 |
| 8 | Black Swan | $5,100,000 | 2,315 | $2,203 | $90,704,000 | 9 |
| 9 | The Fighter | $4,055,000 | 1,914 | $2,119 | $78,373,000 | 8 |
| 10 | Yogi Bear | $3,165,000 | 2,133 | $1,484 | $92,507,000 | 7 |
Given the fact that The Last Exorcism, a mockumentary without even the distant relative of a well-known actor in its cast, debuted last summer with $20.4 million, the opening of The Rite, which stars Anthony Hopkins, has to be seen as a disappointment in the context of the exorcism subgenre. The initial weekend total for The Rite was less than half of the debut gross for 2010’s The Wolfman, a horror movie which also opened in the first quarter and starred Hopkins. The audience for The Rite was evenly split between men and women, but older, with 64% over 25.
Last week’s leader No Strings Attached declined just 31% and finished in second place with an estimated $13.65 million. The romcom starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher clearly benefited from a lack of football competition as it was able to broaden its appeal and attract more male viewers.
In its third weekend The Green Hornet’s tied for third place. Its box office total dropped just 35% as it added an estimated $11.5 million bringing its total to $78.8 million. It is now virtually certain that The Green Hornet will top the $100 million mark domestically. If the film does as well overseas (especially in Asia) as it is supposed to, The Green Hornet will have gotten 2011 off to a good start, at least as far as big budget comic book-based movies are concerned—and there are four major superhero-themed releases set for this summer, Thor, X-Men: First Class, The Green Lantern, and Captain America: The First Avenger.
The Mechanic, an action film remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson vehicle, tied for third (at least temporarily) with The Green Hornet as Jason Statham (Crank, Transporter) posted one of his strongest openings yet. The Mechanic earned a less-than-mediocre CinemaScore of “B-“ from an audience that was predominantly male (61%) and older (64% over the age of 25).
Close behind was the Oscar-likely art film, The King’s Speech, which added 877 theaters and earned an estimated $11.1 million, an increase of 41.3%. Other award-friendly films, True Grit, Black Swan, and The Fighter all continued to demonstrate great “legs.” With the Superbowl occurring next week, these Oscar hopefuls will have another weekend to pad their totals without fear of major competition from new films.
