The psycho-thriller The Roommate topped the weekend box office with an estimated $15.6 million, while the 3-D spelunking saga Sanctum debuted disappointingly with $9.2 million. With only one new film performing well and the long-in-the-tooth holdovers gradually fading away, the overall box office was down 21% in dollars from last year when Dear John opened with $30.5 million. In terms of attendance, this was the lowest number of paid theatrical admissions during a Super Bowl weekend in 15 years. Any way you cut it, Hollywood has had a very rough first quarter so far.
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Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): February 4 - 6, 2011 | ||||||
|
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./ Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
1 |
The Roommate |
$15,600,000 |
2,534 |
$6,156 |
$15,600,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Sanctum |
$9,225,000 |
2,787 |
$3,310 |
$9,225,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
No Strings Attached |
$8,400,000 |
3,050 |
$2,754 |
$51,788,000 |
3 |
|
4 |
The King's Speech |
$8,310,000 |
2,584 |
$3,216 |
$84,125,000 |
11 |
|
5 |
The Green Hornet |
$6,100,000 |
3,033 |
$2,011 |
$87,222,000 |
4 |
|
6 |
The Rite |
$5,565,000 |
2,985 |
$1,864 |
$23,677,000 |
2 |
|
7 |
The Mechanic |
$5,370,000 |
2,704 |
$1,986 |
$20,080,000 |
2 |
|
8 |
True Grit |
$4,750,000 |
2,902 |
$1,637 |
$155,012,000 |
7 |
|
9 |
The Dilemma |
$3,448,000 |
2,545 |
$1,355 |
$45,740,000 |
4 |
|
10 |
Black Swan |
$3,400,000 |
1,977 |
$1,720 |
$95,888,000 |
1 |
Sony’s The Roommate was targeted at a young female audience (the demographic least likely to be distracted by the Super Bowl), and it hit the mark attracting an audience that was 65% female and 61% under 21. The PG-13 suspense film about a freshman college girl with a creepy roommate was relatable, and Sony did a good economical job of marketing the modestly budgeted $16 million movie to its target audience. But with poor reviews (only 9% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and a lackluster “B-“ CinemaScore it appears that this Roommate will be evicted from theaters pretty soon.
Sanctum tried to trade on James Cameron’s name, but neither audiences nor critics (who gave the film just a 29% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes) were buying. A full 84% of Sanctum’s gross came from 3-D showings with 17% from IMAX venues alone, but the fact that even with 178 IMAX 3-D screens, the film earned substantially less than Piranha 3-D ($10.1 million) means that it has to rank as one of the major 3-D disappointments in the past 12 months, and its poor “C+” CinemaScore does not bode well for the future. The audience for Sanctum was slightly female (53%) and decidedly older (65% over 30).
The romcom No Strings Attached slipped just 37% and finished third, while the Oscar-likely The King’s Speech posted the smallest drop in the top ten, falling just 25% as it added $8.3 million and brought its total to $84.1 million.
The King’s Speech cumulative has almost caught up with The Green Hornet, which fell 45.5% as it added $6.1 million to bring its total to $87.2 million. Both films should make the $100 million mark, though The King’s Speech should eventually forge ahead if the awards seasons goes the way it appears to be going right now.
Last week’s leader the exorcism-themed The Rite tumbled 62.4% and finished in six place as it rushes towards box office obscurity. The action film The Mechanic, which finished third last week dropped 53%, which wasn’t too bad considering that’s its core audience was likely getting ready for the Super Bowl.
True Grit (-36.8%), Black Swan (-33.6%), and The Fighter (-26.8%) all posted relatively small declines, but they have been around so long, 7 weeks, 10 weeks, and 9 weeks respectively, that they don’t have a lot of drawing power left.
