Seven-Day Summary: 'Roommate,' 'Sanctum' Sink During the Week
The Roommate finished on top in its opening week, followed further down the chart by fellow newcomer Sanctum. However, one wouldn't know this from looking at the results from Wednesday and Thursday: both movies faded quickly and were replaced by holdovers The King's Speech and No Strings Attached. All of this amounted to another pitiful time at the box office, as it was the lowest-grossing week taking place exclusively in February since 2000. Down 24 percent, overall business was off again from last year when Dear John dethroned Avatar with $37.9 million.

The Roommate debuted to $17.7 million, though a whopping 85 percent was from Friday-to-Sunday. After slipping to second place on Monday, the thriller wound up in fourth place for the remainder of the week. Also, it was way off from fellow PG-13 thriller When a Stranger Calls, which Roommate distributor Sony/Screen Gems opened to $24.8 million on the same week in 2006.

Sanctum barely treaded water with $12.4 million, or just over nine percent of what executive producer James Cameron's Avatar opened to in December 2009. While that's an unfair comparison for a number of reasons, it serves to emphasize that Cameron's name alone can't save a poorly marketed and poorly reviewed movie like Sanctum. The movie had one of the softest 3D openings of the modern wave, and also debuted lower than The Descent and Open Water among similar movies.

No Strings Attached held well again, dipping 37 percent to $10.8 million. With $54.2 million in three weeks, the movie has now passed the final tally of star Ashton Kutcher's 2010 action comedy Killers. It has also become Natalie Portman's sixth highest-attended movie behind the Star Wars prequels, Black Swan and V for Vendetta.

The King's Speech's 28 percent decline was its steepest yet, but it still managed to hold fourth place with $10.6 million for a total of $86.5 million. On Wednesday (its 76th day in theaters), the Oscar favorite topped the daily chart for the first time. It held the top spot again on Thursday, but, with a handful of major releases hitting theaters today, The King's Speech's reign will be short-lived.

The Green Hornet rounded out the Top Five by falling 45 percent to $7.6 million. The Seth Rogen superhero movie remains the top-grossing 2011 release so far with $88.7 million and counting.

In its second week, The Mechanic was off 49 percent to $7.5 million for a total of $22.2 million. Last week's top movie The Rite fared worse, plummeting 59 percent to $7.5 million for a seventh place finish. The Anthony Hopkins exorcism thriller has so far tallied $25.6 million.

Related Story

Weekend Report: 'Roommate' Bunks On Top, 'Sanctum' Stuck in Cave



Related Charts

Weekly Box Office, Feb. 4-10

Daily Grosses

All-Time Domestic Grosses