Box Office Recap-February 6th, 2011

For the second straight week a horror movie took the top spot at the box office. The Roommate made a paltry 15 million this weekend but it was enough to put it on top, according to ew.com. It was a big weekend for counter programming with the film being marketed towards young women and opening on Super Bowl weekend. Generally speaking, horror films fall off fast so it would not be a shock to see the film never get past the 50 million mark. In second place was the other new wide release, Sanctum. The James Cameron produced film which was shot with the same 3D technology as Avatar, made just under 10 million. Not bad for a movie that didn't cost much to make, but still underwhelming especially considering the inflated 3D grosses. The rest of the top five were holdovers No Strings Attached, The King's Speech, and The Green Hornet. Last weeks number one film The Rite fell all the way to sixth place and will be lucky to break 30 million. While there weren't many new releases this week, next week will make up for it, with Just Go With It, The Eagle, Gnomeo And Juliet, and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. My initial prediction for next week is that Just Go With It, Gnomeo and Juliet, and Never Say Never could finish 1-2-3 in front of The Roommate and The Eagle. Many people are comparing The Eagle to films like Gladiator and Braveheart. However the film lacks Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe's star power, and with Channing Tatum taking the lead, is hard to take serious as an epic alongside those great films. Not to mention marketing for the film has been scarce. Check back next week to see how the cluster of new films pan out.