The first full weekend of the new year was a good one for True Grit. The latest offering from the Coen brothers held on strong headed into its third weekend and overpowered Little Fockers to return to the number one spot.
Critics hammered Nic Cage's newest flick, medieval action disasterpiece Season of the Witch. Audiences didn't have much interest either, handing over little more than $10 million to give the movie a weak third place debut.
Obscure music drama Country Strong expanded to wide release jumping up to sixth place with $7 million. After two weeks in very limited release it hasn't generated much buzz and the $15 million price tag may prove to be too high to recover.
Buzz is perhaps finally getting around on Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. The dark thriller enjoyed an inexplicable resurgence this week, dropping only 6% from last weekend and moving up to fifth place from ninth.
Meanwhile The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader slipped from fifth place, falling all the way out of the top ten to eleventh place with only $4 million this weekend. A surge in international sales over the last few weeks has helped the production reach possible profitability, but it's a less than stellar finish for the lackluster fantasy franchise.
Overall domestic ticket sales are down nearly 50% compared to last year in the first week of the year, a particularly bad sign since this year's numbers include sales from two weekends. 2010 saw sales level off, leaving Hollywood with a potentially bleak 2011 ahead.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
