'Tron: Legacy' uploads first

LOS ANGELES (AP)

Jeff Bridges' sci-fi sequel Tron: Legacy has leaped to the top of the box-office grid with a $43.6-million opening weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday.

The Disney release reboots the story line started in Bridges' 1982 tale Tron, in which his character is hurtled into a deadly virtual reality known as the Grid. The movie co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde.

Though quaint by today's standards, the computer-graphic effects in the original Tron were cutting-edge at the time. Yet the movie was a box-office underachiever whose following somehow swelled in the intervening decades, in a way that perplexed even the studio's executives.

"I sure wish I knew, because there is a very, very committed core group of people who just love that movie, and they have fanned the opening-weekend grosses," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

Sluggish weekend

Other newcomers premiered with modest to poor receipts, continuing a sluggish end to Hollywood's year.

The weekend proved no picnic for Dan Aykroyd's family flick Yogi Bear, which fell flat at a weak number two with US$16.7 million.

The Warner Bros release features the voices of Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake in an adaptation of the TV cartoon about the picnic-basket-thieving bear.

With children out of school over the holidays, Warner Bros executives hope Yogi Bear will hold up well through Christmas and New Year's.

"We wish it had been a bit higher, but we'll catch up as we get going," said Jeff Goldstein, the studio's general sales manager.

The previous weekend's top movie, 20th Century Fox's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, fell to number three with US$12.4 million, raising its total to US$42.7 million.

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale's acclaimed boxing drama The Fighter had a so-so expansion nationwide, after a stellar debut in limited release the previous weekend, for the tale based on the life of real-life fighter Micky Ward. Released by Paramount, The Fighter came in at number four with US$12.2 million.

Reese Witherspoon's love-triangle romance, How Do You Know, was a dud with just US$7.6 million, the Sony release opening at number eight. The movie co-stars Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson.

Overall revenues down

Overall revenues slipped to US$134 million, down 2.6 per cent from the corresponding weekend last year, when Avatar debuted with US$77 million on its way to becoming the biggest modern blockbuster with a US$2.8-billion worldwide haul.

Considering the huge gap between the Avatar revenues and those for Tron: Legacy, Hollywood's general business held up fairly well because of this year's diverse undercard of new movies and holdovers.

"We weren't down that badly," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Last year, it was pretty much that one film. Avatar so heavily dominated that marketplace, which was great for Avatar, but for the other movies there wasn't much there."