‘Little Fockers’ is #1 at the box office

Little Fockers, the third in a series of Ben Stiller comedies playing on the nightmare in-laws theme, has topped the Christmas weekend box office in the US.

Despite a lukewarm response from critics, the flick grossed $34 million over the three-day weekend.

That was less than the debut of the 2004 sequel, Meet the Fockers, which opened to $46.1 million, but more than the original, Meet the Parents, which made $28.6 million in its opening weekend.

Oscar-winning brothers Joel and Ethan Coen came in second with their remake of the John Wayne western True Grit.

Jeff Bridges plays drunken, hard-nosed US Marshal “Rooster” Cogburn in the new version of the 1969 classic, which took in $25.6 million, giving the Coen brothers their best ever opening. The filmmakers’ previous top debut was Burn After Reading, which earned $19 million in its first weekend in 2008.

Bridges also stars in last weekend’s top film – TRON: Legacy – which captured $20.1 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, slipping down to third in the rankings.

The sequel to the 1982 sci-fi cult hit stars 61-year-old Oscar-winner Bridges appearing opposite a computer-generated version of his younger self from the original movie.

The original TRON – about a hacker transported into a computer game world – was one of the first-ever computer animated films. It did well at the box office and became a cult for a generation of budding sci-fi fans.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian cinemas:

1. Little Fockers, $34 million

2. True Grit, $25.6 million

3. Tron: Legacy, $20.1 million

4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, $10.8 million

5. Yogi Bear, $8.8 million

6. The Fighter, $8.5 million

7. Gulliver’s Travels, $7.2 million

8. Black Swan, $6.6 million

9. Tangled, $6.5 million

10. The Tourist, $5.7 million