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.

Apparently people who missed going to the theaters last weekend due to the weather made up for it this weekend by keeping last week’s top contender rolling in the catnip.

Falling a mere 3.1% from last weekend, Puss in Boots brought in another $33 million. This is probably a little bit of an oddity due to the weather, but hey, when you set a new record, you set a new record for the smallest drop ever for a wide release.

The new Ben Stiller comedy Tower Heist came in second with $25.1 million, a lower than usual opening for one of his movies, and definitely lower for Eddie Murphy, his costar.

Stoner comedies might be falling in popularity somewhat judging by the performance of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, coming in below Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and seeing as 95% of the attendance was at 3D locations, that means attendance was even lower due to the higher ticket prices.  The true story will be told in the coming weeks.

Paranormal Activity 3 came in fourth with another $8.5 million bringing the domestic gross to $95.3 off of a $5 million dollar budget.  That puts it only $12 million behind the original film, and it seems like it could easily surpass it.

In Time, the new Justin Timberlake action vehicle , slipped into fifth place with $7.7 million, not leaving thins to hopeful this ending up being a big film. I can’t say I’m overly surprised.

The only big release for next weekend is J. Edgar, so don’t expect to see too many changes in the line up of what folks are going to see.

An unseasonably early snow storm in the upper northeast put a damped on the box office this weekend, but that couldn’t keep the first spin off film from the Shrek series from scoring a nice chunk of change.

Snow in the northeast kept the box office receipts a bit lower than expected this weekend, but Puss in Boots, the first spin off film from the Shrek series still brought in around $33 million this weekend.

Falling to second place with a 64% slide was Paranormal Activity 3 with $19 million.  This brings its domestic total to $81 million, and considering the $5 million dollar budget, I would hazard to guess we can expect a Paranormal Activity 4 in our futures.

The new Justin Timberlake action vehicle In Time came in third with a pretty soft $12 million.  Not too surprising to be honest, the trailers read much more as a home viewing experience to me than a must see in the theaters.

Footloose feel to fourth place with $5.5 million bringing its cumulative total to $38.5 million. Off of a $24 million budget this film is still clearly in the red, and it isn’t looking too good for making it to the black during its theatrical run.

Rounding out the top five was the new Johnny Depp film, The Rum Diary, once again proving that not everything he touches turns to gold.

This week sees everything going heavy on comedy with the release of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and Tower Heist.

Apparently the movie going audience hasn’t yet tired of the “found footage” horror film genre as the third film in the Paranormal Activity series set records for an October opening.

Paranormal Activity 3 scared up $54 million in its opening weekend to set a record for the biggest opening ever for October and the largest premiere for the series.  However, not all was rosy as nearly 49% of that came in on Friday, but considering the film only cost $5 million to make, it’s highly doubtful anyone is going to be horribly upset about how the money came in.

Coming in second was Real Steel with a 30.5% decline to $11.3 million.  That brings its domestic total to $67.2 million, but with no data released yet on its budget it’s difficult to judge how it’s doing.

Third place saw Footloose slide a respectable 30.3% in its second weekend to bring in $10.85 million. It’s not exactly burning up the box office, but it is holding its own for sure.

Swasbuckling its way into a disappointing fourth place opening, the 318th version of The Three Musketeers brought in a disappointing $8.8 million. It’s doubtful this is the amount the studio was hoping for in its opening weekend.

The Ides of March fell to fifth place to bring in $4.9 million.

Opening next week will In Time, Puss in Boots, The Rum Diary and Anonymous.

I Don’t Know How She Does It? $8,000 this weekend bringing its domestic total to $9.594 million off a $24 million budget. Here’s a funny moment for you, Captain America, which was released in July and comes out on home video this week, brought in another $165,000.