The unstoppable force that is James Cameron’s Avatar topped the box office for the seventh weekend in a row. The 3D outer space epic declined only 14.1% while earning an estimated $30 million and bringing its domestic total to $594.5 million. Sometime this week James Cameron’s epic, which is sure to snag some attendance-building Oscar nods and has now earned over $2 billion worldwide, will pass the $600 million mark and become the highest-grossing film in domestic box office history.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): January 29-31, 2010 | |||||
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| Film | Wknd Gross | Screens | Avg./Screen | Total Gross |
| 1 | Avatar | $30,000,000 | 3,074 | $9,759 | $594,472,000 |
| 2 | Edge of Darkness | $17,120,000 | 3,066 | $5,584 | $17,120,000 |
| 3 | When in Rome | $12,065,000 | 2,456 | $4,912 | $12,065,000 |
| 4 | The Tooth Fairy | $10,000,000 | 3,345 | $2,990 | $26,106,000 |
| 5 | The Book of Eli | $8,770,000 | 3,075 | $2,852 | $74,373,000 |
| 6 | Legion (2010) | $6,800,000 | 2,476 | $2,746 | $28,646,000 |
| 7 | The Lovely Bones | $4,735,000 | 2,638 | $1,795 | $38,014,000 |
| 8 | Sherlock Holmes | $4,510,000 | 2,250 | $2,004 | $197,596,000 |
| 9 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel | $4,000,000 | 2,526 | $1,584 | $209,297,000 |
| 10 | It's Complicated | $3,720,000 | 2,096 | $1,775 | $104,027,000 |
The film Avatar will dethrone, Titanic (also directed by Cameron), managed to sell around 125 million tickets, while so far Avatar, which as sold roughly as many tickets as Titanic through its first seven weekends, has only accounted for 70 million admissions, which puts it on a par with the first Spider-Man film. Higher ticket prices, especially for the 3D screenings that have accounted for 70% of Avatar’s revenue, are responsible for Avatar’s record setting domestic and worldwide performances.
Avatar’s continued box office strength coupled with some strong holdovers made sure the total for the top ten films remained a solid 6% ahead of the same weekend last year. The only film in the top ten that suffered a steep decline was the horror film Legion, which dropped some 61% in its sophomore session. Mel Gibson’s revenge thriller Edge of Darkness took second place with an estimated $17.1 million, which was well behind the opening of the Liam Neeson’s “don’t mess with my daughter” thriller Taken, which opened to $24.7million on the same weekend last year and became one of the surprise hits of the first half of 2009.
While Mel Gibson’s first star turn in eight year opened to somewhat disappointing numbers, Kristen (Veronica Mars)
Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes remained in the top ten at number 8. The Robert Downey, Jr.--starring reboot of the Sherlock Holmes franchise will pass the $200 million mark this week at the domestic box office. It has earned nearly an equal amount worldwide, which means a sequel is all but inevitable.
Universal’s geriatric romcom It’s Complicated surged over the $100 million mark and Disney’s 2D epic The Princess and the Frog, which was just announced on DVD, just edged its way over the same barrier. Lionsgate’s stylish vampire pic, Daybreakers appears done after four weeks with a domestic total of nearly $30 million--but it could do some damage on DVD.