May 22, 2012

The Rite Takes the Box Office to (Exorcism) School

by Rebecca Pahle | Published January 31, 2011

The “Anthony Hopkins As Exorcist” movie The Rite came in at the top of the box office this weekend, pushing last week’s number one No Strings Attached (the “Natalie Portman In A Romantic Comedy With Ashton Kutcher?!” movie) to spot number two. The former earned $15 million in its first weekend, while the latter earned $13.6 million, making its total gross so far $39.7 million. New release The Mechanic (which shouldn’t be called the “Jason Statham Kills Things” movie, because even though the moniker is accurate, it also describes every other Jason Statham movie) came in at number three with $11.5 million. Spot number four went to The Green Hornet, which made exactly as much as The Mechanic did over the weekend, though the former has a lower per-screen average. The Green Hornet‘s total gross is up to $78.8 million. Rounding out the top five was The King’s Speech (weekend gross $11.1 million, total gross $72.2 million).

Other new releases include From Prada to Nada, which earned $1.1 million (Lionsgate will do a Versace-themed sequel as soon as they can figure out a rhyme). Biutiful, which earned an Oscar nomination for Javier Bardem, made $460,916 in its first weekend. Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster made $63,500, and Gregg Araki’s Kaboom earned $14,400 in just one theater.

New releases as we move into February include the documentary Into Eternity, which gets a limited release starting this Wednesday. Out this Friday are The Roomate and Sanctum, out in wide release, and Waiting for Forever, American Grindhouse, Around June, Cold Weather, Dressed and The Other Woman (starring Natalie Portman, bringing the tally of Natalie Portman movies you can see in theaters next weekend to three) in limited release.