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Unlike the Christmas weekend at the box office, it was no easy win for Universal's Little Fockers at the box office. True Grit actually managed to move ahead of those Fockers on New Year's Eve, but then was relegated to the cheap seats for the rest of the weekend. There were many winners and losers compared to the Christmas week, and with no new openers to talk about, let's figure out who's winning and who's not.

Our number one film of the weekend is Little Fockers, but it's neck and neck with True Grit, and the order of the top 12 may change tomorrow, when actuals come out. After winning the Christmas weekend with a $30.8 million, three-day gross, Little Fockers was looking to improve on last weekend's haul of $30.8 million, but failed to do so, as it earned $26.3 million over the New Year's weekend. This is a very similar situation to what happened to Meet the Fockers in 2004 – the first sequel was in its second weekend and fell 10% - Little Fockers fell 15%. True Grit is moving the opposite way. After earning $24.9 million over its opening frame last weekend, the Coen Brothers western held very well, earning $24.5 million over the New Year's weekend. It dropped only 1%, and really has to be considered the big winner of the holidays. I must say I was looking forward to True Grit, but thought it would perform more in line with No Country for Old Men, and finish (in March) with about $75 million. This is not the case, as the Coens have their first bona fide blockbuster. Production costs for True Grit came in at less than $40 million ($60 million less than Fockers, $160 million less than Tron: Legacy). It has grossed $86.8 million so far. Little Fockers has earned $103.2 million, and could finish with less than True Grit. Who would have called that two weeks ago?

In third and fourth are two very bad movies, Tron: Legacy and Yogi Bear, that are moving in very different directions. A weekend ago, Tron trounced Yogi by a little more than $10 million, but fortunes are changing for both. Tron: Legacy finished third this weekend, but that's really where the good news ends. Tron earned $18.3 million, and despite being a kid-friendly flick, fell 4%. Yogi Bear, on the other hand, earned $13 million this weekend, and increases over last weekend by 66%. The biggest differences between these two pictures are production costs, and expectations. Tron: Legacy was highly anticipated, and cost Disney $200 million to make. For those that have seen it, you know expectations were clearly not met, and if you are like me, you wonder if the movie-makers had even seen the first film. Yogi Bear cost Warner Bros. $80 million to make, and as for expectations, this is Yogi Bear – a movie about a talking bear who hunts picnic baskets (enough said). In the end, totals for both will likely be a wash versus their production budgets, as Tron has earned $130.9 million, and Yogi Bear $66.1 million.

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