BOX OFFICE HAS THE RITE STUFF

During another sluggish weekend at the box office, Warner Bros.’ exorcist flick The Rite came out on top with an estimated $15 million. In second place was last weekend’s winner, Paramount’s romcom No Strings Attached, which earned a better-than-predicted $13.7 million, down a modest 31 percent from last weekend. CBS Films’s The Mechanic also beat most forecasts, earning about $11.5 million and was tied with Sony’s The Green Hornet for third place. The Weinstein Co.’s The King’s Speech, in its first weekend after picking up 12 Oscar nominations, followed closely in fifth place with around $11.1 million, to bring its gross to $72.2 million — a surprising figure for a low-budget movie that was expected to appeal mostly to the art-house crowd. Despite the fact that there was no football on television to drain attendance, the box office again was down from last year — marking the 12th consecutive down weekend.

iThe top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. The Rite, $15 million; 2. No Strings Attached, $13.7 million; 3. The Green Hornet, $11.5 million; 3. (tie) The Mechanic, $11.5 million; 5. The King’s Speech, $11.1 million; 6. True Grit, $7.6 million; 7. The Dilemma, $5.5 million; 8. Black Swan, $5.1 million; 9. The Fighter, $4.1 million; 10. Yogi Bear, $3.2 million

UPDATE:
Final Figures for the Top Five Films

1. The Rite, $14,789,393
2. No Strings Attached, $13,410,229
3. The Mechanic, $11,422,006
4. The Green Hornet, $11,184,361
5. The King’s Speech, $11,064,781
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