Box office held down despite “No Strings”

Who’s pregnant with two top-ten films in America right now? Natalie Portman. “No Strings Attached” took in a strong rom-com opening weekend with $20 million, enough to detach “The Green Hornet” from the number one spot. “Hornet,” in fact, held up pretty well down just 47 percent from the previous weekend, a rarity for a film with so-so reviews in this kind of genre.
Meanwhile, Oscar contenders, who will find out just how contentious (?) they are Tuesday morning, continued to perform well, just not nearly well enough to keep the box office from falling nearly 20 percent from last week and 25 percent compared to last year. That’s usually what you can expect, however, with only one major studio release.

1. No Strings Attached  – $19.6 M (weekend) … $19.6 M (gross)
2. The Green Hornet  – $17.6 M … $63 M
3. The Dilemma – $9.1 M … $32.7 M
4. The King’s Speech – $7.8 M … $57.3 M
5. True Grit – $7.3 M  … $137.9 M
6. Black Swan – $5.8 M … $83.2 M
7. Little Fockers – $4.3 M  … $141.1 M
8. The Fighter – $4.1 M … $72.6 M
9. Yogi Bear – $3.8 M … $88.6 M
10. Tron: Legacy – $3.6 M -… $163.2 M

No matter who wins Oscar glory, there’s no question that “True Grit” gets the last laugh in terms of money. Although slightly more expensive to make than the other films, it enjoys the only $100-million-plus gross thus far.

Natalie Portman, however, was the real winner. Compared to most films of its type (even with no other new competition, I’ll admit), “No Strings” made a good amount of money. Portman brings a bit more ammo to the contract negotiations table now, and more films will be sending her scripts of all colors. If she weren’t pregnant, she could seriously look at some of them, but she is.