It's 2010. Things are so much different from how we predicted they might turn out back in 1984 -- a spacefaring future populated by pugnacious Russian cosmonauts resembling Helen Mirren with a permmullet. Back then, the most satisfying narrative experience to come out of a computer was Zork III: The Dungeon Master. Today, it's Avatar, which cast an ominous shadow upon challengers this weekend as it flapped across the billion-dollar mark. Who will tame the mighty Avatar?
1. Avatar
Gross: $68,300,000 (cume: $352,111,000)
Screens: 3,461 (PSA: $19,734)
Weeks: 3 (Change: -9.7%)
Our prediction that Avatar would reach 10-figures internationally somewhere around the middle of the month turned out to be a little conservative, as James Cameron's blockbusting behemoth surpassed that rare milestone over the New Year's weekend. Its $68.3 million haul, just a 9% drop, blows away Spider-Man's record of $45 million for a film in its third week. The next step: sinking Titanic -- entirely achievable when you consider how the two compared in the same time frame.
2. Sherlock Holmes
Gross: $38,385,000 (cume: $140,675,000)
Screens: 3,626 (PSA: $10,586)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -38.5%)
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Gross: $36,600,000 (cume: $157,345,000)
Screens: 3,747 (PSA: $9,768)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -25.1%)
Featuring neither a heavy-handed environmental message nor the ability for its two lovestruck leads to entwine mustache tendrils for a round of hot and sweaty communal deduction is Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, which nonetheless held steady in second-place. Those rascally chipmunks also held on to their spot. And as much as I tried this weekend, I couldn't quite evade those high-pitched Alvin commercials that send me hurling towards the remote, as though it were the antidote to a quick-acting nerve gas shooting out of my TV's speakers.
4. It's Complicated
Gross: $18,700,000 (cume: $59,105,000)
Screens: 2,897 (PSA: $6,455)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -15.4%)
A slim slip of 15% proves once again that Meryl Streep's got legs, and knows how to use 'em. She's alright.
5. The Blind Side
Gross: $12,650,000 (cume: $209,052,000)
Screens: 2,926 (PSA: $4,323)
Weeks: 7 (Change: +10.3%)
Seven weeks into its historic run, the Sandra Bullock sleeper phenom managed to up its take by over 10%, landing it back in the top five and further popularizing its inspirational catchphrase, Who Would Jesus Tackle?
[All charts and figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo.]