If this was a horse race ... the jockeys might have fallen asleep.
No film managed to exceed its lukewarm expectations at the domestic box office Friday, with Warner chick flick "Life as We Know It" grossing $5.3 million, narrowly beating Sony incumbent champ "The Social Network," which took $4.9 million.
Finishing third, Disney sports movie "Secretariat" also was on the low side of its pre-release tracking, grossing $4.1 million Friday, putting it on pace for a $14 million weekend.
With the overall box office down 14 percent from the same weekend last year, none of these films is expected to gross much more than $15 million for the entire weekend.
Here's how the top 10 shaped up. Full report continues below chart:
Even horror meister Wes Craven's first 3D movie -- and first film based on an original concept in 16 years -- couldn't find traction, with the Relativity/Rogue-produced, Universal-distributed "My Soul to Take" taking in an estimated $2.7 million Friday.
That's the low side of pre-release estimates, with the $25 million film on pace to gross about $7 million this weekend in the U.S. Universal released the R-rated movie into 2,572 U.S. locations, with Canada's Alliance handling the Great White North.
One other film opening wide, or at least semi-wide at 742 locations, Focus youth drama "It's Kind of a Funny Story" grossed an estimated $679,000 Friday.
But the big story was the three-way race between "Secretariat," "Life as We Know It" and "The Social Network," for which studio backers had hoped the winner would yield a weekend tally somewhere in the more-impressive $18 million range.
Playing in 2,771 theaters in the U.S. and Canada and sporting impeccable reviews, the David Fincher-directed "Social Network" dropped under 40 percent on its second Friday, and should exceed the $40 million mark on Saturday. The film costs Sony under $40 million to produce.
Warner's PG-13-rated "Life as We Know It," meanwhile, opened in 3,150 theaters across North America, starring Katherine Heigl ...again as a young woman suddenly shackled with the burdens of motherhood.
The film, which co-stars Josh Duhamel, cost producers Village Road Show and Gold Circle Films $38 million to produce. Warner came in expecting an opening gross of somewhere between $15 million-$18 million.
Disney's "Secretariat" stars John Malkovich and Diane Lane, not to mention a large horse playing the eponymous 1973 Triple Crown winner.
Opening in 3,072 locations, the PG-rated film cost $35 million to make.
For comparison, Universal's more ambitious "Seabiscuit" -- another Triple Crown-winner biopic -- started out to $20.9 million in July 2003.
