This was an unexceptional weekend for movies and, true to form, it was an unexceptional box office too. A pair of new releases were supposedly blah (I haven’t seen either), both of which topped the domestic box office… Also, ‘No Strings Attached’ keeps making money, much to my continued befuddlement.
The weekend’s top earner turned out to be Sony’s thinly veiled ‘Single White Female’ remake, the PG-13 rated ‘The Roommate‘. It earned a respectable if not extraordinary $15.6 million, proving that teenagers are really bored (and have never seen ‘Single White Female’). This will take a huge hit next weekend, of that I am certain. It’ll be a miracle if it remains in the top 5.
At #2 is the mysteriously popular ‘Sanctum‘, a 3D cave movie that no critic seemed to enjoy and doesn’t have any acting heavyweights or a “Wow!”-worthy hook to lure in audiences. It just looks drab and in 3D. But it made $9.7 million. Considering that it’s an independent international production (with James Cameron, a sucker for both underwater adventures and 3D, as a producer), that’s kind of a coup. Again: this will plummet like it’s been kicked down an underwater cave next week, especially since many of those 3D screens will be co-opted by ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’.
If you want a good blueprint for how a so-so opening can go downhill really fast, look no further than last weekend’s champion, ‘The Rite‘, which dropped to #6 with another $5.8 million. (‘The Mechanic’ suffered similarly, although it didn’t start out all that high. It was #7 with $5.1 million.)
And then there’s ‘No Strings Attached‘, which hung in there at #3 with another $8 million. That brings its total up to $51.4 million, which should put it comfortably in the “sleeper hit” category. In other Natalie Portman-related news, ‘Black Swan‘ rounded out the Top 10 at #10 with $3.4 million. It’s made almost $100 million so far, which is so far beyond impressive I can’t even believe it. This was a movie that had to struggle every step of the way with financing, distribution, and everything that comes along with it. Now Portman is the Oscar frontrunner for Best Actress and the movie has made more money than Hollywood blockbusters like ‘The Green Hornet’!
The Top 10:
01 The Roommate (Sony) – $15.6 million
02 ‘Sanctum 3D’ (Relativity/Universal) – $9.7 million
03 ‘No Strings Attached’ (Paramount) – $8 million
04 ‘The King’s Speech’ (Weinstein Company) – $7.5 million
05 ‘The Green Hornet’ (Sony) – $6.2 million
06 ‘The Rite’ (Warner Bros) – $5.8 million
07 ‘The Mechanic’ (CBS/Sony) – $5.1 million
08 ‘True Grit’ (Paramount) – $4.7 million
09 ‘The Dilemma’ (Universal) – $3.4 million
10 ‘Black Swan’ (Fox) – $3.4 million
