Weekend Box Office Report

Weekend Box Office Report

Movie News

By our guest blogger, Joe Oliveto

February is always an odd month for moviegoers. Few quality films get released around this time of year, but there are usually some Oscar nominees still hanging in there and bringing in the bucks thanks to the free advertising that often comes along with awards season.

That’s not to say that those movies fared particularly well this weekend at the box office, although there was an exception. Horror film “The Roommate” came away with the top spot, taking in about $15.6 million, followed by “Sanctum,” which earned $9,225,000. For a movie with no major stars attached, we’re slightly surprised that “Sanctum” even did that well, but perhaps all those TV spots with James Cameron’s name added on drew in some gullible viewers who didn’t realize that in cases like this, there is a world of difference between producer and director. The success of “The Roommate” was also fairly unpredictable; cheap horror movies sadly make more money than they ought to, but this one seemed to come out of nowhere.

“The King’s Speech” actually held on to the fourth spot, beating out more recent releases like “The Green Hornet” and “The Rite.” The movie has gotten a huge boost from its wins at various awards shows, and while “The Social Network” was the most critically acclaimed major release of the year, it looks like “The King’s Speech” may take home the Best Picture prize on Oscar night.

Other Oscar contenders didn’t perform quite as well. “True Grit” ended up as number eight on the list, and “Black Swan” was number 10. To be fair, both of those have been in theatres for a while now, so the fact that they are still making any money ought to be encouraging.