A New Tron Bomb?

Tron Legacy wins box-office weekend with a nice number—$43.6 million—that may or may not be enough to keep up with its budget; Yogi Bear goes hungry

By Joal Ryan Dec 19, 2010 9:33 PMTags
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Do a search for the phrase "box-office disappointment," and you'll find plenty of references to the original Tron.

So, how it'd its long-, long-, long-awaited sequel do?

Way better than Yogi Bear.

Tron: Legacy won the box-office weekend with an estimated $43.6 million. 

The number was nice—actually, TheWrap called the film's start "tepid"—but given the film's reputed $170 million budget, was it enough? Enough to prevent Tron: Legacy from becoming another Tron "disappointment?" 

Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock thought so. "There is nothing else in the marketplace to match it," he wrote in an email today.

Bock predicted a modest, considering Tron: Legacy's budget, overall domestic gross of $200 million-$250 million, and figured on foreign grosses to make the film a hit.    

Internationally, Tron: Legacy made $23 million, bringing its three-day total to $66.6 million, another nice number, but not nearly as nice (or big) as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader's worldwide debut last weekend.

The bottom line on Tron: Legacy: Time will tell. Considering nearly 30 years elapsed between the two Tron movies, patience is a franchise trademark.

Elsewhere, among the other major new releases, Yogi Bear (second place, $16.7 million) was no Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the $100 million How Do You Know (eighth place, $7.6 million) was nothing if not definitive: It's toast. 

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the latest Chronicle of Narnia flick, fell from first to third ($12.4 million; $42.8 million overall), and prayed it continued to translate overseas.

Angelina Jolie's and Johnny Depp's The Tourist (fifth place, $8.7 million; $30.8 million overall) didn't get a Golden Globes bounce, while Burlesque, another surprise Globes nominee, got bounced. The $55 million Cher-Christina Aguilera musical fell from the Top 10 after three weekends (the same as Showgirls!), and a $35.5 million domestic run. The $100 million Tourist is at $53.1 million worldwide.

The Fighter, Black Swan and The King's Speech showed how it was done: The awards-season heavyweights all killed in the wake of the Globe and SAG nominations.

Mark Wahlberg's The Fighter (fourth place, $12.2 million; $12.6 million overall) broke wide, and was up nearly 4,000 percent from last weekend. (Yes, that's correct: nearly 4,000 percent.) Black Swan (seventh place, $8.3 million; $15.7 million overall) was up more than 150 percent; The King's Speech ($1.1 million; $2.9 million overall), more than 80 percent. 

Debuting in limited release, Nicole Kidman's low-budget Oscar vehicle, Rabbit Hole, did OK, grossing $55,000 at five theaters. 

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films, per Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

  1. Tron: Legacy, $43.6 million
  2. Yogi Bear, $16.7 million
  3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, $12.4 million
  4. The Fighter, $12.2 million
  5. The Tourist, $8.7 million
  6. Tangled, $8.68 million
  7. Black Swan, $8.3 million
  8. How Do You Know, $7.6 million
  9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, $4.8 million
  10. Unstoppable, $1.8 million