There was a vaguely popular sporting event happening across the pond this weekend, and that usually leads to slightly weaker box office returns as the nation indulges in full-on football fandom. But the results weren’t exactly stellar anyway, with college-set stalk/suspense pic The Roommate scoring a quiet first place touchdown with $15.6 million. Given that it was pumped out relatively cheaply for $16 million, it should be able to win back some profit.
Despite the 3D price boost and having James Cameron’s name attached, cave-driving drama Sanctum could only bubble up $9.2 million in takings, with audiences seemingly turned off by some toxic word of mouth. Still, much like The Roommate, Sanctum was produced for about what one of Avatar’s cameras likely went for, so it has less cash to claw back. The two new films pushed No Strings Attached down to third, where it nabbed $8.4 million, with The King’s Speech continuing to enjoy an Oscar nomination bump, with $8.3 million pushing it back up to fourth from fifth. It swapped places with The Green Hornet, which took in $6.1 million.
Exorcism horror outing The Rite began a swift tumble from its start atop the charts, dropping to sixth place and $5.5 million. The Mechanic lost 53% of its business to fall to seventh with $5.3 million. True Grit slipped a couple of places to eighth with $4.7 million, while The Dilemma went down to ninth with $3.48 million. And down in 10th we find Black Swan, which made $3.4 million in its 10th week of release. Darren Aronofsky’s ballet psychodrama has taken just over $95 million in the US so far – not bad for a $13 million budget…
To creepily watch statistics sleeping, head on over to Box Office Mojo