Tron stars Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund have plenty to smile about. Picture: Getty Source: news.com.au
JEFF Bridges' science-fiction sequel has leaped to the top of the US box-office grid with a $US43.6 million ($44.24 million) opening weekend.
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 sequel 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.
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 film
Yogi Bear, which fell flat at a weak No.2 with $US16.7 million ($16.95 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 No.3 with $US12.4 million ($12.58 million), raising its total to $US42.7 million ($43.33 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 No.4 with $US12.2 million ($A12.38 million).
Reese Witherspoon's love-triangle romance
How Do You Know was a dud with just $US7.6 million ($A7.71 million), the Sony release opening at No.8. The movie co-stars Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson.
Overall revenues slipped to $US134 million ($135.97 million), down 2.6 per cent from the same weekend last year, when
Avatar debuted with $US77 million ($78.13 million) on its way to becoming the biggest modern blockbuster with a $US2.8 billion ($2.84 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."
The King's Speech, a Weinstein Company release that led Golden Globe contenders on Tuesday with seven nominations, remained a strong earner as it continued its gradual expansion in limited release.
The film starring Colin Firth as Queen Elizabeth II's father, a reluctant king coping with a debilitating stammer, took in $US1.1 million ($1.12 million) in 43 theatres, averaging a healthy $US25,000 ($25,367.83) a cinema.
That compared to a $US12,634 ($12,819.89) average in 3451 theatres for
Tron: Legacy; $US4752 ($4821.92) in 3515 cinemas for
Yogi Bear; $US4874 ($4945.71) in 2503 locations for
The Fighter; and $US3061 ($3106.04) in 2483 places for
How Do You Know.
Fox Searchlight's ballet drama
Black Swan, another top Globe nominee starring Natalie Portman, climbed the chart as it expanded into nationwide release with $US8.3 million ($8.42 million) in 959 theatres, averaging $US8655 ($8782.34) and coming in at No.7.
In limited release, Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart's sombre drama
Rabbit Hole opened solidly with $US55,000 ($55,809.23) in five theatres, averaging $11,000. The film, which earned Kidman a Globe nomination, centres on a couple struggling in their marriage after losing their young son in a traffic accident.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through to Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to
Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released tomorrow.
1.
Tron: Legacy, $US43.6 million ($44.24 million).
2.
Yogi Bear, $US16.7 million ($16.95 million).
3.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, $US12.4 million ($12.58 million).
4.
The Fighter, $US12.2 million ($12.38 million).
5.
The Tourist, $US8.7 million ($8.83 million).
6.
Tangled, $US8.68 million ($8.81 million).
7.
Black Swan, $US8.3 million ($8.42 million).
8.
How Do You Know, $US7.6 million ($7.71 million).
9.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, $US4.8 million ($4.87 million).
10.
Unstoppable, $US1.8 million ($1.83 million).
Although the panda bear lives wild in a very restricted geographical area of China, it is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and also an internationally protected species. 
The existence of this puzzling animal was first revealed in 1869 when a French missionary naturalist, Pere Jean Pierre Armand David, astonished fellow scientists by sending back to Paris a description, pelt and skeleton of a new species he named Ursus melanoleucus or "black white bear". He concluded that they more closely resembled those of a much smaller animal known to occupy the same territory: the red panda which looked like a cross between a raccoon and a fox, but revealed its primary ancestry with a raccoon-like body and facial stripes and long ringed tail. The stronghold of the Giant Panda is the formidable vastness of the Easter Himalayas close to the Chinese-Tibetan border, a vast wilderness of jagged peaks thrusting 20,000 feet in the air above cavernous valleys and torrential mountain streams. 
Although it was once thought that the giant panda population did not exceed 150 to 200 individuals, more recent estimates have put the figure at several thousand animals. 