Friday Box Office | featured news

The Warner Bros.' action-fantasy Sucker Punch pulled ahead of 20th Century Fox's sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules at the Friday box office, but the weekend will likely go to Rodrick Rules.

In a boost for Relativity Media's new marketing and distribution operation, Bradley Cooper starrer Limitless opened to No. 1 at the Friday box office, grossing an estimated $6.6 million from 2,756 theaters. After that, it was a tight race between the two other new movies, the Matthew McConaughy legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer and Universal's sci-fi comedy Paul, and two holdovers, Battle: Los Angeles and sleeper hit Rango.

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Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies' quirky toon Rango -- voiced by Johnny Depp -- topped the Friday box office with an estimated $9.8 million from 3,917 theaters, a somewhat softer-than-expected start for the critically acclaimed film.

The Farrelly brothers’ R-rated comedy Hall Pass opened to a soft $4.6 million on Friday, and will likely be beat by holdovers Gnomeo & Juliet and Unknown for the weekend.

The weekend box office crown is still up for grabs as the Liam Neeson thriller and the sci-fi adventure are only $500,000 apart in estimated grosses.

Screen Gems is back in good form with thriller The Roommate, which easily beat Universal/Relativity’s 3D Sanctum at the Friday box office in grossing an estimated $6.4 million from 2,534 screens. Sanctum, executive produced by James Cameron, grossed an estimated $3.6 million from 2,787 runs, including more than 2,000 3D runs. The Australian adventure-thriller also is playing in 178 Imax theaters.

New Line/Warner Bros.’ Anthony Hopkins horror-exorcism pic The Rite topped the box office Friday, grossing an estimated $5.3 million from 3,022 theaters.

The Green Hornet landed with more of a box-office prick than a sting, collecting $10.8 million on Friday, according to studio estimates. That puts the $110 million movie, starring Seth Rogen as the titular superhero, on pace for a four-day holiday weekend grab of about $36 million.

Relativity Media’s Season of the Witch opened to an estimated $3.7 million from 2,816 theaters at the Friday box office to place No. 3 behind Paramount’s True Grit -- which all but jumped the $100 million mark -- and Universal’s Little Fockers.