The burning question of what film would ever -- if ever -- unseat Avatar from box-office supremacy has finally been answered, and it's not likely the successor anyone would have guessed. The Channing Tatum/Amanda Seyfried romantic weepie Dear John is absolutely killing this weekend, drawing $13.8 million on opening day and eyeing a three-day total of at least $30 million by Sunday night. That's more than double what Avatar earned on Friday and more than $10 million in front of the John Travolta thriller From Paris With Love. Also noteworthy: Crazy Heart fared well in its Oscar-race expansion, while The Blind Side... enh. Not so much; it remains just on the outside of the Top 10 looking in for the third straight week. Read on for the full list.
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Join us now, your stalwart Movieline editors, as we re-adjust to non-Sundancian life with an analysis of the weekend's box office numbers. And hey -- what do you know? Avatar is the biggest movie in America. So much has changed! It's all Rip Van Winkle up in here.
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As January winds down, so, too, does Avatar's box-office momentum -- not enough to cost the blockbuster first place in the weekend sweepstakes, but quite possibly enough to keep it below $30 million for the first time in its staggering seven-week run. Attribute it to what you will, though Mel Gibson's comeback Edge of Darkness can no doubt claim a little bit of credit despite a softer than expected opening. The romantic comedy When in Rome settled into third place as expected with its own solid $4.4 million Friday, while The Book of Eli, Tooth Fairy and Legion are all on track for drops of more than 50 percent since last week. Click through for Friday's complete top 10.
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Join us now from Sundance as we offer a glance at the weekend's box office numbers, albeit through the fuzzy haze of enough complimentary Patron cocktails to kill an average sperm whale. Patron: Helping socially awkward, aspirant filmmakers get laid at heavily corporatized independent film festival parties since 2009™.
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It's easy to get wrapped up in Sundance and wonder if you're missing some crucial film news elsewhere, but there was little of interest at yesterday's box office besides the continued domination of Avatar. The only debut with any pop was the "look at my face transform!" horror pic Legion, while The Tooth Fairy and Extraordinary Measures both underperformed.
The full Friday figures:
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If it's Sunday afternoon, then it must be time to count another stack of cash generated by another stellar week of Avatar. The blockbuster soundly outgunned a few other effects spectacles (including one surprisingly strong-performing former awards hopeful) on its way to a fifth consecutive first place finish; read on to see just how soundly.
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After the fizzled release of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Denzel Washington's got reason to celebrate: His The Book of Eli opened to $11.7 million, suggesting this could be one of his biggest first weekends ever (still, the tenaciously holding Avatar could climb back on top by the end of the four-day weekend). In other news, The Lovely Bones opened in third, which is not bad, considering the film's seriously tempered expectations as of late. Full results after the jump:
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Another spectacular weekend overseas puts Avatar $460 million short of Titanic for the all-time box office record -- so close! Domestically, its $49 million haul puts it at seventh-highest grosser of all time, poised to overtake Star Wars in a matter of days. On the flipside of the equation, critically trounced McChick flick Leap Year (womanly, yes, but I hate it, too!) pooped in its pot o' gold, while two-times-the-Cera didn't prove to be two-times-the-cash for the underperforming Youth in Revolt, no matter how mercilessly he tickled our belly buttons from the inside. Hard numbers are after the jump.
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As predicted, Avatar piled on another top-ranking Friday at the box office, lining itself up for its fourth consecutive No. 1 finish come Sunday night. As usual, it wasn't even close; despite Avatar's 47-percent drop from last Friday -- its steepest one-week slide to date -- it still took in more than double the amount of its closest new competitor Daybreakers. Among other debuts, the beleaguered Leap Year sank into fifth place, while Sandra Bullock's cash-seeking missile The Blind Side showed its first signs of possibly running out of gas. Click through for the full Top 10.
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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?
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Gather round Hometree, everybody! We've got a special announcement. The Friday box office was a bountiful harvest for two of our most important dreamwalkers: Jamesca'meron, whose Avatar crossed the $300 million mark with no signs of slowing, and Sa'ndrabullock, who saw The Blind Side pass $200 million (and it's still in the Top 5). Surely, their Na'vi tentacle things are plugged directly into the American populace. Here are the full figures:
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The stockings were hung by the chimneys with care, but Americans, still bitter about the "I O U ... One Hug!" coupons found stuffed inside them on a very recession-y Christmas morning, chose to take out their frustrations at the local multiplexes. The result: a record-breaking, $285 million weekend at the domestic box office. Read on for the merry-making results.
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There really was something elementary about uncoiling Robert Downey Jr.'s sly, sinewy Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day, when nearly $25 million worth of holiday moviegoers flocked to the star's action-comedy riff on the famous sleuth. Avatar was not far behind, continuing its own robust run with an estimated $23.5 million. Off in fourth place behind Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel was Nancy Meyers's It's Complicated, ably overriding its R-rating with a solid $7.1 million. Let it suffice to say these gifts fit Hollywood fine, and no returns will be necessary. Read on for the full top 10.
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Weather. It's the one thing James Cameron couldn't control about Avatar's big opening weekend, and it may have proven costly. Box-office theorists will long debate if and/or how a few feet of snow over the Northeast kept people from the Biggest Movie Ever, but for now, the director and his Fox patrons will have to be content with taking what nature -- and America -- gave them. That number and the weekend's other top finishers follow the jump.
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James Cameron's Avatar stormed the gates yesterday with a healthy $27 million haul, and while that may not be an eye-popping number compared with, say, New Moon's first full day, it's more than decent for December, where only Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and I Am Legend managed better. In fact, Avatar may have sucked all the air out of the room, as Did You Hear About the Morgans tanked, while The Princess and the Frog fell over 50%, a discouraging second weekend in a genre that can typically boast tiny drops. Here are the top ten:
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