It’s been a very sluggish January at the US box office, especially compared to last year, when Avatar was breaking every record imaginable and pulling several other films up in its wake. This weekend wasn’t a rousing end to the month either, with the Anthony Hopkins possession thriller, The Rite, ending up in first place with $15 million on its opening weekend. It’s an okay start for the type of film it is , but nothing spectacular.
The only other new movie in the top 10 was The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham, which took the number three spot with $11.5 million. Again it’s nothing to write home about but is about average for a Statham flick in the States, outgrossing Crank: High Voltage, but coming in slightly under the openings of Transporter 3 and Death Race.
However the real winner this weekend was The King’s Speech, which added nearly 900 theatres following the announcement of its 14 Oscar nominations, which helped its gross to grow 41% over last weekend. Also getting a helping hand from the Oscar noms was 10-time nominee True Grit, which dropped less than 4% from last weekend. Indeed the Coens films has proved such a success that it will now end up with a higher US gross than fellow Christmas opener, Little Fockers, which most had expected to be by far the most successful of the two.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend on January 28th-30th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | The Rite | $15.5 | $15.0 |
| 2 | No Strings Attached | $13.6 | $39.7 |
| 3 | The Mechanic | $11.5 | $11.5 |
| 4 | The Green Hornet | $11.5 | $78.8 |
| 5 | The King’s Speech | $11.1 | $72.2 |
| 6 | True Grit | $7.6 | $148.3 |
| 7 | The Dilemma | $5.4 | $40.6 |
| 8 | Black Swan | $5.1 | $90.7 |
| 9 | The Fighter | $4.0 | $78.3 |
| 10 | Yogi Bear | $3.1 | $92.5 |