A depressed weekend tally at the box office that most are attributing to the Great American Ice Storm might also have a day-long/night long college football “Championship Saturday” element.

“Frozen” held more of its audience than “Catching Fire” and will win the weekend, taking in about $28 million, with “Hunger Games” getting by on $26-27. Both did well but had very steep drop-offs from their heady openers. VERY steep. 70%+

Among the Oscar contenders and potential contenders…

“Philomena” is piling up the cash, gaining hopes that it will be a serious awards contender, and “Dallas Buyers Club” already has enough box office attention to be a real Oscar best actor/supporting actor/picture hopeful already. You’ve got to make at least $5-10 million or so before the awards consideration turns serious, so all this talk about “Before Midnight” seems futile. “All is Lost” hasn’t made much of a dent, either. Even “Nebraska” is failing to make enough of a grubstake to warrant high Best Picture hopes.

The idea is that you’ve got a certain groundswell — at least a tiny one — that merits a best picture push. Oscar’s never been generous about unloading big honors on movies that haven’t performed at least a bit. At least a couple of million people should have seen you — $5-10 million — to give you a chance.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is earning $89,000 per screen in two city release. It’ll lose that cachet when it opens in the Real America.