‘TRON: Legacy’ Is Top Dog at US Box Office

It’s been a rather lackluster weekend at the North American box office but the just released “TRON: Legacy” still managed to meet all expectations, even if not write history with record gross.

While estimates were saying Saturday morning the Disney film would most likely make about $47 million over the opening weekend, “TRON” fell only a couple of million short of the target.

The film made $43.6 million over the weekend (nearly on mark), followed at a great distance by the animated comedy “Yogi Bear,” which underperformed with $16.7 million, LA Times’ Hero Complex reports.

Overall, it was a bad weekend at the box office, which only makes “TRON” achievement all the more impressive. Then again, no industry insider doubted it would make a killing in its first weeks, as we also noted over the weekend.

“Walt Disney Studios’ big-budget sequel ‘Tron: Legacy’ opened to a solid $43.6 million. The 3-D animation / live-action hybrid ‘Yogi Bear’ started with a soft but not terrible $16.7 million,” the e-zine notes.

Apparently, the most disappointing opening of the weekend – and of the year, according to some critics – is the star-packed comedy “How Do You Know,” which audiences seem to have shunned altogether. It made only $7.6 million.

“The weekend also saw two movies expand from limited to nationwide release with very strong ticket sales given their modest budgets,” Hero Complex reports.

“‘The Fighter,’ starring Mark Wahlberg, took in $12.2 million. ‘Black Swan’ grossed $8.3 million, a particularly impressive figure as it was playing at only 959 theaters, less than half the number of any other film in the top 10,” the same publication notes.

Back to “TRON,” its target audience seems to have been – expectedly – adult males, with most of them saying they liked it when they came out of the theater. CinemaScore polls gave it an average B+ with audiences.

“TRON: Legacy” comes with an estimated budget of about $170 million (to which Disney added 3 years worth of promotion, marketing costs), and is en route to launching very successful commercial endeavors with theme parks, video games and television shows.

“Initial foreign grosses were a little more troublesome for Disney. ‘Tron’ took in a so-so $23 million from 26 foreign markets, but bad weather in Europe left the studio hopeful the film would recover for a strong foreign run,” Hero Complex further writes.