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Many of Hollywood's big guns of 2011 went head-to-head in the mightiest marketing blitz of the year. Oh, and a football game called Super Bowl XLV was played between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On Friday, the top two movies explored the dark recesses of caves and dorm rooms, and one (The Roommate) saw the faint glimmer of the top spot while the other (Sanctum) sank to new depths for a modern 3D action movie. Overall business continued to be rather miserable, down an estimated 27 percent from the same Friday last year, when Dear John led. James Cameron

The Rite technically opened in the top spot at the box office this week, though No Strings Attached held well enough that it nearly retained first place. The week's other new movie The Mechanic had an average Jason Statham debut, while The King's Speech expanded once again and had its highest-grossing week yet. Despite snowstorms dominating a large portion of the country, overall business bounced back a bit: while every week so far this year has been down at least 25 percent from 2010, this week declined a comparatively light 15 percent. Anthony HopkinsAshton KutcherColin FirthGeoffrey RushSeth RogenDanny BoyleJames Franco

After box office receipts were down nearly 29 percent in January, the big question is whether the month of February can reverse this startling downward trend. With an Adam Sandler romantic comedy, the big-screen debut of pop sensation Justin Bieber, a sci-fi action movie set in high school and the latest Farrelly Bros. comedy, it's unlikely that February will fare as poorly as January. With no major holdovers, though, it's going to be tough to reach February 2010's $754.7 million, much less February 2009's record-setting $769.3 million. James CameronIoan GruffuddLeighton MeesterMinka KellyDennis DuganJennifer AnistonJamie BellChanning TatumMartin LawrenceBrandon T. JacksonLiam NeesonOwen WilsonJason SudeikisPatrick LussierNicolas CageJulianne Moore

Update: Estimates placed The Green Hornet on top for the weekend, but Tangled moved ahead with a dramatically improved actual number to lead another underwhelming weekend at the foreign box office. Tron Legacy also bounced back with a strong opening in Germany, while Black Swan and The King's Speech held extremely well. Overall box office was once again down, as the Top Eight movies combined were unable to match Avatar's $95.2 million from the same weekend last year. Clint Eastwood

Thanks mostly to another significant expansion, Blue Valentine barely held off newcomer From Prada to Nada to lead the arthouse field for a fourth straight weekend. The weekend's other significant new limited release was Biutiful, which leveraged it's multiple Oscar nominations to decent initial results. Michelle WilliamsBen AffleckTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemMike LeighNicole Kidman

It was another dull weekend at the box office, though new releases The Rite and The Mechanic weren't dreadful, No Strings Attached held relatively well and several pictures capitalized on their Oscar nominations, led by The King's Speech. Overall business wasn't as off as recent weekends, but it was still down 13 percent from the same period last year, when Avatar reigned again. Anthony HopkinsJason StathamJames Franco

While sequels, remakes, comic book adaptations and animated movies will inevitably dominate 2011's box office, there will still be a few hits that don't fall in to any of these categories. In 2009, there was Avatar, The Hangover and The Blind Side, and in 2010 there was Inception. Here's a look at ten of the contenders, including three high-profile book adaptations, a few alien invasion movies, a potential Twilight successor or two and some wholly original wild cards.Amanda SeyfriedMia WasikowskaRobert PattinsonFrancis LawrenceReese WitherspoonChristoph WaltzJ.J. AbramsBennett MillerBrad PittAaron SorkinMartin ScorseseDaniel CraigRooney MaraDavid FincherSteven Spielberg

After a quiet 2009 and 2010, comic book adaptations are back in a big way in 2011. Marvel will continue its Avengers series with Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, and the hope is that their box office numbers are more reminiscent of Iron Man than The Incredible Hulk. Elsewhere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. will finally unleash Green Lantern, the X-Men return without Wolverine in X-Men: First Class and Jon Favreau and Daniel Craig attempt to successfully blend the sci-fi and western genres for Cowboys & Aliens. With all of these major comic book adaptations, 2011 has an off-chance of topping 2008, which was the year The Dark Knight and Iron Man led the genre to a record $1.22 billion in sales (an astounding 13 percent of overall box office). Robert Downey Jr.Chris HemsworthChris EvansRyan ReynoldsMartin CampbellPaul Bettany

While sequels The Hangover Part II and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked are likely to put up big numbers, it's tough to get a read on the rest of 2011's comedy slate. Because of their general lack of foreign appeal (the top five comedies in 2010 made just 38 percent of their worldwide total overseas, compared to 61 percent among the top five overall), studios err on the side of cheaper productions, and cheaper productions don't demand publicity a year in advance. Regardless, comedy remains a popular genre, and there's no shortage of box office contenders in 2011. Owen WilsonJames FrancoDanny McBrideNatalie PortmanJudd ApatowCameron DiazJason SegelJustin TimberlakeRyan ReynoldsJason BatemanPaul RuddAdam SandlerDennis DuganTodd PhillipsKevin JamesJim CarreyTom HanksJulia RobertsSteve CarellAnna FarisChris EvansGarry MarshallKatherine HeiglJonah HillRuben FleischerJesse EisenbergAziz AnsariBrett RatnerBen StillerEddie MurphyCasey AffleckMatthew Broderick

While overall box office remained relatively stagnant from 2009 to 2010, animated movies hit record levels. Thanks primarily to Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After and surprise smashes Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon and Tangled, animation accounted for nearly $1.5 billion of 2010's business, up a massive 16 percent from 2009. With three major sequels, a prequel and a handful of other nicely-timed releases, 2011 animation has the potential for similar growth. Gore VerbinskiJohnny DeppSteven Spielberg

In 2011, Hollywood will rely on former glories to a greater degree than ever before. Sequels (including prequels and spin-offs) comprise over a fifth of the currently scheduled nationwide releases, tallying 27. Last year, there were 19, and the previous high was 24 in 2003. Johnny DeppOrlando BloomKeira KnightleyBrad BirdJeremy RennerTom CruiseRobert Downey Jr.Vin DieselPaul WalkerDwayne JohnsonDavid R. Ellis

At first glance, 2011 may wow with its lineup of big-name sequels (final Harry Potter, fourth Pirates of the Caribbean, third Transformers, etc.) and other major franchise fare (Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, etc.). But that may just be a veneer: a schedule packed with ever more sequels and adaptations can limit growth opportunities as was seen in 2010.

No Strings Attached debuted in first place this week, though that's due more to the lack of competition than any particularly impressive earnings. The Green Hornet experienced a standard superhero decline and settled for second place, while The King's Speech leveraged its 12 Oscar nominations to move in to third. In an increasingly unnerving trend, business was down 27 percent from last year when Avatar led with $47.7 million. Ashton KutcherNatalie PortmanKevin James

After losing out to Tangled in its opening weekend, The Green Hornet added a few major new markets and moved to the top of the foreign chart. After flying under the radar for a while, Hereafter had impressive launches in France and Spain. Black Swan flew in to third place with healthy debuts in the United Kingdom and Germany. Overall business was likely down again from last year, as Avatar's $108.3 million was once again greater than this week's Top Ten combined. Clint EastwoodJohnny DeppAngelina Jolie

The Motion Picture Association of America's Classification and Ratings Administration released new ratings for Bridesmaids, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Winnie the Pooh and more in their weekly bulletin this afternoon.Judd ApatowKristen WiigEwan McGregor

This year's crop of Best Picture nominees has thus far made nearly $1.2 billion, which was off from last year when Avatar, Up and The Blind Side dominated. The ten nominees have averaged $119.3 million, which was also down from 2003, the last popular year when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King triumphed. Still, the Academy's choice to expand the Best Picture category to ten nominees last year once again netted the inclusion of audience favorites, namely Toy Story 3 ($415 million) and Inception ($292.6 million). Those two scored Best Picture nominations while being left out of the more selective Best Director field.

In a battle between two Weinstein Company releases, Blue Valentine held off unimpressive competition from newcomer The Company Men to retain the top spot among limited releases for the third-straight weekend. Ryan GoslingMichelle WilliamsBen AffleckTommy Lee JonesMike LeighPaul Giamatti

On Saturday, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader passed $100 million, ending distributor 20th Century Fox's nearly 13-month-long $100-million-movie drought. This cold streak dated back to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which crossed that mark on Dec. 29, 2009. Tony ScottDenzel Washington

Listlessness pervaded the box office again. The sole major new release, No Strings Attached, was on top with a decent showing, and it was business as usual for the holdovers. Overall weekend box office was down 29 percent from the same period last year, when Avatar led for the sixth straight weekend, and it was the least-attended post-Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend since 1992. Ashton KutcherNatalie PortmanSeth Rogen