It wasn’t a very happy year at the box office in 2011, and while the total for the year dropping was bad enough, some movies suffered more than others.

While there are always certain to be films each year that don’t fare well at the box office, some did spectacularly bad this year. Even bankable stars like Johnny Depp showed that not everything he touches is guaranteed to turn to fold.

As you look over this chart, keep in mind that a movie is considered successful when it doubles its production budget domestically to account for marketing costs.  Foreign box office loses a larger chunk due to international distribution deals, so even though some films have a higher total gross than their budget, it still doesn’t mean they made money.

Even though Mars Needs Moms was the biggest loser by dollar amount, I’m really focused on The Big Year.  The latter crashed and burned in such a way that it is mind boggling.  When you factor in it wasn’t even that large of a budget, to see it bring in just over $7 million worldwide, you really have to wonder how it went so horribly wrong.  We’re talking nearly art house film money here it did so badly, and its widest release point in the U.S. it had 2,150 screens.  True, huge films now come in at over 3,000 screens, but 2,150 isn’t exactly small and that means total per screen average domestically was $3,333.20.  That, by Hollywood standards, is a total disaster.

The list of films definitely has some large budget disasters, it’s also interesting to see how “modestly” budgeted films also didn’t fare all that well.  The Rum Diary was probably risky to begin with, but seeing it not even bring in its $40 million dollar budget is surprising when Depp has more billion dollar movies under his belt than anyone else.  I Don’t Know How She Does It has probably shown that the love affair with Sarah Jessica Parker has definitely come to an end.

When you add in how Happy Feet Two performed with Mars Needs Moms catastrophic failure, it also looks like the age of animated films being easy hits is quickly drawing to a close.  There was a time where every animated film brought in just insane amounts of money, but their performance has been dropping more and more lately, and these two have definitely set a new bar.

I’ll try not to laugh at how Conan the Barbarian performed, but it’s difficult to not to.  And Green Lantern … for having the biggest budget, this may actually end up being the flop that sticks in most people’s minds when they think back on 2011.

It’s obvious that even after all these years that the film studios don’t have a clue as to what they’re doing, and when a film is a “hit,” it really just has to be pure luck.

One note: New Year’s Eve is still in release, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to do a lot more.

Despite it being ten years since there was anything for the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes took the top spot at the box office this weekend.

The original Planet of the Apes series ended in 1973, and the remake was released in 2001, so my feelings were that a prequel of sorts to a series most of today’s movie audience wasn’t that familiar with wouldn’t do well, but yet Rise of the Planet of the Apes brought in a healthy $54 million this weekend. Where this fits into the overall Apes mythos is odd in that is envisioned to be an origin story of sorts to the original 1968 film, it contradicts the fourth film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, that told of the rise of Ceaser. Seeing how the film did this weekend, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a whole new series launch out of this film. (Here ends my nerdy knowledge of the Planet of the Apes series.)

Coming in second was The Smurfs with a respectable 41% fall off in business from its opening to weekend to land with $21 million. Seeing as an average second weekend fall is 50%, this film is performing surprisingly well.

Not performing as well was last weeks top spot holder, Cowboys & Aliens which fell 56.8% to $15.7 million. The concept was unique for sure, but it appears that film goers were not all that interested in this concept.

The Change-Up opened up in fourth place with $15.7 million. Perhaps it is time for Hollywood to realize that people are bored with body swap stories, but it’s doubtful that will stop them from going back to this forumla time and time again.

Wrapping up the top five was Captain America: The First Avenger with $13 million in its third weekend.

Next week is a busy one with The Help opening on Wednesday and 30 Minutes or Less, Final Destination 5 and Glee The 3D Concert Movie hitting on the weekend.

Green Lantern?  Out of the theaters completely.  No more train wreck for us.

In what is sure to turn in to a day long battle of pennies, two films tied for the top box office spot this weekend: Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs.

One thing to remember with these top box office reports each week is they are based off of estimates until much later in the day on Monday.  The projections are usually fairly accurate, but when you have two films tie for the top spot, you end up with a day long battle of furious accounting to figure out which one actually came out on top.

Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs are both initially reporting box office receipts of $36.2 million.  No matter what, the former was expecting a bigger weekend more in the range of $45 million, but the latter actually came in a bit ahead.

Captain America: The First Avenger took a 62 percent hit, falling to $24.9 million.  This keeps it ahead of Thor, but not by much.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 came in fourth, falling another 54 percent to $21.9 million. It became the top grossing film in the series on Friday, and has also passed $1 billion globally, but it is running behind based on attendance. This has got to become the leading metric someday for the business side of things over the finances.

Coming in in firth place was the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love which brought in $19.3 million.

Green Lantern? 26th place with $166,000 for a new domestic total of $114.3 million. For a fun comparison, Thor came out more than a month earlier and was in 23rd place with $203,000.

Next week sees the release of The Change-Up and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I know next to nothing about the first one, but I really have no clue how the prequel to the Planet of the Apes will do. It seems like a really odd pull at this point.

UPDATE: Cowboys & Aliens brought in $36.4 million to The Smurfs $35.6.  

Adding to Green Lantern’s shame, Rio – an animated move released in April and coming out on DVD tomorrow – played in more theaters and brought in $560 more.

Knocking the boy wizard from the top box office spot, Captain America: The First Avenger planted his flag at the top of the mountain.

Captain America took the top box office spot this weekend with $65.8 million, beating the last Marvel movie, Thor, by a mere $100,000 for a weekend total.  The latter went on to a domestic gross total of $180 million, so it looks like this film will go on to a similar total.  This is the last of the films from the company leading up to its team film, The Avengers debuting next May.

The big news this week, however, was the 72 percent decline that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2, the largest fall ever for a film that set an opening weekend record. It still brought in $48 million, and it is doubtful that Warner Brothers is to up set as it’s nine day worldwide total sits at $834.5 million.  How will they ever make payroll next week with so little income coming in?

Friends With Benefits came in third with a rather anemic $18.5 million, below the similarly themed No Strings Attached that came out this past winter and opened with $19.7 million. There are probably some nerves around this film now as it opened so low and had a $35 million dollar budget. Using the usual math the film needs to hit $70 million domestic to break even, and that seems a pretty tall order now.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon slipped to fourth place with an estimated $12 million. It’s domestic total now sits at $325 million and a worldwide total of $882.3 million.

Coming in fifth was Horrible Bosses with $11.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $82.4 million off of a $35 million budget.

And since I love a train wreck, where was Green Lantern? 18th place with $390,000 for a new domestic total of $113.9 million. Worldwide it’s now at $147.2 million off of a production budget of $200 million. And yet they say there will be a sequel? Well, okay then.

Next week sees Cowboys & Aliens, Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Smurfs.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 didn’t hit the $180 million some expected it would, but it did have the biggest opening weekend ever at $168.5 million.

The former record holder was The Dark Knight at $158.4 million, and factoring in the extra fees for 3D, attendance was slightly lower, but still impressive for the last film in the Harry Potter series.  (Sidenote: When are we going to start paying more attention to attendance than dollar amount?  It’s the only true measure.)  Missing the projected $180 million can be chalked up to a 53 percent decline from Friday to Saturday, a far steeper fall than one would usually expect.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon fell to second place with a 55 percent decline to an estimated $21.25 million. It does however mark the first film of the year to cross the $300 million domestic gross milestone, and has now racked up a total of $762.8 million.

Horrible Bosses came in third with an estimated $17.6 million, marking a decline of only 38 percent, a very respectable amount.

Zookeeper fell only 39 percent to come in at fourth with $12.3 million. It fell less than most, but when you start at such a low level, you don’t have to go.

Rounding out the top five was Cars 2 with $8.3 million.  It looks like Pixar may have finally made a misstep with this film as it is trailing far enough back now from the studio’s other features to mark a 12 year low.

Green Lantern? 14th place with $1.25 million for a total of $112.6 million. This really has become like watching a train wreck.

Next weekend sees the release of Captain America: The First Avenger and Friends With Benefits.

Considering the competition it was facing, it isn’t all that surprising that Transformers: Dark of the Moon won another weekend at the box office.

Falling 52% from it’s opening weekend, the third Transformers film brought in another $47 million and is actually doing quite well, and is holding onto it’s audience better than the second film did.

Horrible Bosses came in second with an estimated $28.1 million, the best opening ever for a dark comedy. Compared to other comedies this summer it fell into about the middle of the pack financially, but with a $35 million dollar budget, it needs to hit a minimum of $70 million total, and it may have a tough time getting there.

Opening in third was Kevin James’ Zookeeper with $21 million. How does this guy keep getting work, and why do people go and see it? He seems like a likable guy in interviews, but he’s just not that funny with scripted material.

Cars 2 settled somewhat with a 42 percent drop to $15.2 million for the weekend, but it is now trailing behind the first film on a day-by-day count.

Bad Teacher fell 38 percent to $9 million with a new total gross of $72.8 million off of a $20 million budget. Cheap comedies work, folks.

Larry Crowne fell 52% to $6.3 million and has about no hope of breaking even now. Perhaps the days of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts as box office draws has come to a close?

And just because it’s become like a sport now, Green Lantern was in ninth place with $3.1 million. It’s now at $109.7 million for a total domestic gross on a $200 million budget. This film is going to go down in history as an object lesson in how to blow a film that should have been a homerun.

Next weekend sees the final movie in the Harry Potter series released. My suspicion is we will see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 comfortably take the lead.

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Transformers: Dark of the Moon won the box office this weekend, and even set a record in the process.

Despite having its opening day moved around more times than anyone could count, the third Transformers movie won the weekend box office even with having been out a few days prior.  For the three day weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), the film brought in $97.4 million.  Add in the Monday numbers, it is estimated the film will have brought in $116.4 million.  This puts it six percent behind the second film, but still a healthy take.

Also of no surprise, mixed reviews seem to have had no impact on the film’s performance.

Cars 2 had a bummer of a weekend, sliding 60 percent from it’s opening weekend to only ring up $26.2 million for the three days, and $32.1 million for the extended holiday. This puts it well down the list of Pixar success stories, but Cars has never been a big earner at the box office, but it does huge in merchandise.

Bad Teacher slid 54 percent to $14.5 million ($17.6 million four-day). It’s grossed $63 million thus far in 11 days, and considering its $20 million budget, it’s already a success story.

The new Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts film Larry Crowne bombed in a big way, opening at 2,973 locations, the production only brought in $13.1 million ($15.7 million four-day). It only had a $30 million budget, and with these mega-stars attached you would have thought it would have brought in larger numbers.

Rounding out the top 5 was Super 8 with $7.8/$9.5 for the three and four day totals.

Monte Carlo cane un sixth with an estimated $7.4 million ($8.8 million four-day). You mean that yet another movie about mistaken identities didn’t do well? I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!

Where’s Green Lantern you ask? Oh, just sliding another 64 percent to come in seventh with $6.5/$8 million for the weekend. I’d laugh if my hopes hadn’t been so high for this disaster.

Next weekends is all comedies with Horrible Bosses and Zookeeper. The former has potential, the latter makes my brain hurt just watching the commercials.

Cars 2 sped into first place this weekend, but before you sound the horn, there are a couple caveats.

Cars 2 did indeed come in first this weekend with an estimated $68 million, but as Pixar films go, that’s nothing to sing about. Going on attendance as opposed to dollars due to inflation, the second film in the series only beat out A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille and Toy Story. While people weren’t exactly clamoring for this sequel, the merchandising from the first movie did so well that it is believed that is about the only reason this film exists. Another movie, more merchandise.

We’ll see how it fares with a couple more weekends,but it doesn’t look like this one will be setting the film world on fire like some of the previous Pixar productions.

Coming in second was the new Cameron Diaz vehicle, Bad Teacher.  It brought in an estimated $31 million, but Sony has to be singing songs of happiness today as the audience skewed 63 percent female.  Along the same lines as the current hit Bridesmaids that is still bringing in several million a week.

Normally a film sees around a 40 to 50 percent drop in its second weekend. Then you have Green Lantern. Coming in at $18.5 million, that’s around a 65 percent drop from the first weekend. I think we can officially classify this movie as a disaster at this point.

Super 8 came in fourth with $12.1 million, bringing it’s total to $95.2 million and in line with films of this type.

Rounding out the top five Mr. Popper’s Penguins with $10.3 million.  The fact this movie even exists boggles my mind, so lets just leave it there.

The only major release next week is Transformers: Dark of the Moon … PREPARE FOR BAYHEM!

Yes, it’s true, a $53.2 million opening weekend is a disappointment in this day and age for big budget films. Add in the fact that Green Lantern was supposed to shepherd in a new age of movies based on DC Comics, and it gets even worse.

Where the issues for Green Lantern really kick in is that revenue dropped 22 percent between Friday and Saturday, a far larger than usual number for a major film.  There is no way the pounding this film took from the critics didn’t play a factor, and the average comments on sites such as Twitter that I saw over the weekend eld me to believe the paid reviewers got it right this time.

The final insult?  Based on attendance instead of dollar amount, Green Lantern fared worse than Daredevil or Ghost Rider … ouch.

Coming in second was Super 8 with $21.2 million, just over a 40 percent decline from last week, but seeing as 50 percent is considered average, this film may have some legs to it.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins opened in third place with $18.2 million.  I think this means we’re officially over Jim Carrey, and I for once couldn’t be happier about this.  He hasn’t been funny in years, and even then it was very touch and go when he actually was good.  Even discounting Carrey, this film did poorly for a summer family film, apparently no one wanted to watch a movie about a guy with penguins in his house.

X-Men: First Class came in third with $11.5 million and a decline of 52.5 percent from last weekend.  This marks the third worst weekend for any X-Men film, so it looks like this one is definitely not living up to expectations.

Rounding out the top 5 was The Hangover: Part II with $9.6 million, off 45.5 percent from last weekend.  It’s still at $233.1 million domestic gross, however, off of an $80 million dollar budget.  Translation?  It’s in the black.  I still would say a third film is on the way.

Other recent films such as Kung-Fu Panda 2 took a major hit, falling to sixth and not performing anywhere near expectations with $8.7 million this weekend. Bridesmaids brought in nearly $7.5 million and just keeps chugging along. This movie just won’t quit.

Next week?  Cars 2 from Pixar … prepare for an astronomical number.

Despite a huge marketing campaign, and a fairly high audience interest score, it looks like Green Lantern could be in for a very rough weekend thanks to the numerous bad reviews.

For the most part I gave up paying attention to reviews years ago because I rarely agreed with them.  However, when you have such an overwhelming amount of negativity directed at a film to where you can almost call it universal, you have to figure there is it at least a modicum of truth to it.  Such is the case with Green Lantern which opens tomorrow at theaters across the country.

Taking a look at Rotten Tomatoes, the current score is hovering at 20% which is the score averaged from 79 reviewers.  Switch the view to just “Top Critics” and only 19 chime in, and the score drops to 11%.  The summary review also doesn’t do a whole lot of favors for it either:

Noisy, overproduced, and thinly written, Green Lantern squanders an impressive budget and decades of comics mythology.

Ouch.

Over at MetaCritic, which is pulling in 18 reviews, the film is scoring 37 out of 100 with only one review being labeled as “positive.”

In short, it is almost impossible to ignore the overwhelmingly awful reviews this film is getting.  If they were simply blasting it for being a comic book movie, that would be one thing, but everywhere you look you see slams for the acting, the tone, the direction, the script, horrible dialogue, events that happen arbitrarily and on and on and on.  In short, everything I despise in a film.  There is no doubt that this movie will still have a good weekend at the box office, but I would say that the original $60 million that was predicted is not going to come close to being a reality.

Of course, everyone’s mileage will vary, and listening to the critics is certainly not for everyone.  Unfortunately, for me at least, they have hit all the points that would make me repeatedly bang my head against a wall, and that’s just sad.  Green Lantern is a rich character with an enormous back story that cries out to be made into film, but only if it is done so correctly.  Sadly, despite having waited literally waited decades to see a movie of this, I have to say that they can now count me out of being there this weekend.

The latest film from J.J. Abrams, Super 8, had a $37 million opening weekend which surpassed last minute predictions, but still fell short of what the studio was hoping for.

On the same weekend last yet, The Karate Kid remake opened to $56 million, far exceeding studio projections, so a low opening for one of the most hyped filks of the summer is sure to have disappointed.  While the $37 million surpassed industry experts projections, the studio was surely hoping for more with Abrams and Spielberg attached, and a huge marketing campaign behind it.

The issue is, I think people are tiring of Abrams’ super cryptic shtick of telling you next to nothing about a film before its opening.  Excitement was huge for Cloverfield, and it ended up just being a horrible film.  Some audience trepidation for a film market in a similar manner is totally understandable.  The good news is that audience satisfaction is high with this project, so odds are it will have some staying power and not suffer the usual 50 percent fall of a second weekend.

Speaking of 50 percent falls, X-Men First Class fell 55 percent this weekend to $25 million, landing it in second place.  As X-Men films go, that actually was the second lowest drop in the series, coming in behind X2: X-Men United.

The Hangover: Part II fell another 41 percent to to $18.5 million, crossing the $200 million mark on its 16th day of release.  It’s falling off much faster than the original film, but due its spectacular start, the third film is still a given.

Kung-Fu Panda 2 only fell 30 percent this week, coming in with $16.6 million.  It seems to finally be leveling out and could hang around for some time now.

Rounding out the top five was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which fell 40 percent from last weekend to bring in $10.8 million. It surpassed $200 million on its 22nd day of release, and looks set to be the worst performing film in the series domestically. However, it’s total worldwide gross is now at $886,774,000. Off a $250 million dollar budget, I wouldn’t write this series off yet.

Normally I stop at the top five, but Bridesmaids brought in another $10.2 million, falling only 16 percent from last weekend. It’s now up to $123.9 million off a $32.5 million budget. Not bad at all.

Green Lantern is up next weekend, lets see how one of the most anticipated films of the summer does.

Almost as big of a character in the Green Lantern mythos as any of the named characters is the planet Oa. Located at the center of the universe, the planet is the home of the Guardians of the Universe, the founders of the Green Lantern Corps, and it serves as the gathering point when the various Lanterns need to speak with one another.

My feelings on how the Green Lantern movie will do seem to oscillate every time I turn around.  While some of it is based on the fact it’s in 3D, a lot of it of course has to do with how the source material is treated.  While I’ve been vocal about my issues on the costumes, the original trailer and more, Oa has been a bit of a mystery.  While this is not exactly a detailed look, it looks too lived in.  Oa has always been about the Guardians and the 3,600 members of the Corps, bu this planet looks like a bustling society.

I know, I know, minor quibble, but … darn it.  Get at least something spot on, would ya?  Take a look for yourself and see what you think