Couldn't we still be feeling the effects of the strike? I mean, everything released by the studios now would have been in development two years ago, hence the shortfall of the number of films?

The strike could very well be a contributing factor. The studios stockpiled projects, then decided to slow acquisitions while working through their development slates. My guess is they're trying to see how few movies they can make to feed into their distribution system and still be profitable, thereby saving money on acquisition, development, and marketing. I guess we'll have some more tea leaves to read when we see how many movie studios release in January 2012.

A little experimental film called Avatar did almost $300 million in January 2010 alone. Take it out of the equation and 2011 actually has a better box office.

The film adaptation of the Battleship game is totally going to turn Hollywood around. Mark my words!

The worse-than-usual wintry weather?

@daveed: The winter storms definitely impacted B.O., especially in the northeast.

@Nick: Obviously Avatar a huge deal last year. But as the article points out, 2011 is the first sub-100M B.O. ticket sales in January since 1995.

I'm with Nick. Avatar kind of skews it.

There weren't many movies that released in January. And one of bigger budget ones THE GREEN HORNET was a flop.

Seems like there's a lot going on with television this January. That might be part of it as well. A shift towards television with production funds.