It was a good week for stalkers at the cinema this weekend. The youthful reimagining of Single White Female called The Roommate lurked around at number one with $15.6 million in sales. Not even close was critically maligned 3-D adventure Sanctum. The James Cameron-produced underwater thriller failed to tickle audiences, who got their adrenaline rush from football instead. The Fighter and Yogi Bear were the fatalities of this week’s charts, dropping out of the top ten.
The Roommate, a female-centered movie, easily won the guy-centric Super Bowl weekend. Although many movie fans of both sexes stayed in to catch the Steelers take on the Packers, others journeyed out of doors to catch some alternative programming. Chick flicks tend to do better on the weekend of this great American tradition. No Strings Attached took third place and Oscar nominee The King’s Speech took fourth. But action movies did place with The Green Hornet adding $6.1 million to its $87 million tally while both The Rite and The Mechanic put an extra $5 million in their bank accounts. In limited release news, Black Swan is just under $5 million away from the $100 million milestone.
The Top Ten
1. The Roommate - $15.6M (weekend)…$15.6M (gross)
2. Sanctum - $9.2M…$9.2M
3. No Strings Attached - $8.4M…$51.7M
4. The King’s Speech - $8.3M…$84.1M
5. The Green Hornet - $6.1M…$87.2M
6. The Rite - $5.5M…$23.6M
7. The Mechanic - $5.3M …$20.0M
8. True Grit - $4.7M…$155.0M
9. The Dilemma - $3.4M…$45.7M
10. Black Swan - $3.4M …$95.8M
(weekend estimates)
Out next week are a whopping four new releases. Most notorious is Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, a concert film by the young pop star about his journey from doubt to domination. It premieres in 3,000 locations. Miley Cyrus started this trend in 2008 and broke a Super Bowl weekend record with her IMAX concert movie. The posthumous Michale Jackson documentary Michael Jackson’s This is It also played well, grossing $72 million.
Next up, Just Go With It, a comedy starring Adam Sandler as a doctor attempting to convince a new flame he is ending his fake marriage will open widest at 3,400 cinemas. Sandler shares the screen with box office poison Jennifer Aniston. Brooklyn Decker rounds out the cast as the romantic interest.
Gnomeo and Juliet returns family fare to the box office. The animated adventure from Buena Vista will come alive in 2,700 theaters nationwide. The cute little picture about forbidden love between lawn gnomes is guaranteed to get the kids out of the house. But how well can this meagerly marketed February release go with the competition of three other films?
Is there any role Channing Tatum can turn into a hit? The young and handsome star gets his face out there, but mostly in bombs. Most recently he had a small part in The Dilemma, however that romantic comedy underperformed. His new period action picture is sure to confuse his fan base of young males. Still, The Eagle takes flight in 2,150 auditoriums this Friday.
