FOCKERS TAKE ON TRON: LEGACY

After six years, the Focker family return to the screen with Universal’s Little Fockers, starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. The film, which opens today (Wednesday), is expected to win the holiday box office with about $55-60 million, about 20 percent less than the $70.5 million earned by Meet the Parents, the last Fockers sequel, which was released in the comparable period in 2004. Also opening today is the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit. The Coen Brothers’ movies are rarely big box office hits; this one is expected to do around $15-20 million and probably place third after the second week of Tron Legacy. A third film, Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, which has been picking up Oscar buzz, is opening in six cities. Trying to avoid the holiday crush Fox is opening Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black, on Christmas Day. It has been tracking poorly — with some box office gurus predicting that the film, which reportedly cost about $120 million to make, will earn less than $10 million in its debut.