Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island dropped just 46% and took the box office crown for the second week in a row with an estimated $22.2 million.  In spite of horrendous reviews (only 20% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), the Kevin Smith-directed Cop Out, took second place with an estimated $18.6 million followed closely by a loose remake of George Romero’s 1973 film The Crazies with $16.5 million.  That cinematic Energizer Bunny also known as Avatar declined just 14% and brought in an estimated $14 million in its 11th weekend.  Overall the box office, which continued its strong performance in 2010, was up 31% from the same frame in 2009 and 39% ahead the first weekend in March in 2008.

Cop Out is the first film Kevin Smith directed, but did not write, and it also produced the biggest opening of his career.  The Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan buddy movie managed a solid $5,894 per venue.  It should be interesting to see if Cop Out can manage to overcome its bad notices again next weekend when Tim Burton’s high profile Alice in Wonderland and the police drama Brooklyn’s Finest both open.

Unlike Cop Out, Breck Eisner’s The Crazies has received excellent notices (71% positive), especially for a horror film.  The Crazies attracted a young audience that was 56% male and 65% under 25.  Will strong notices and good word of mouth help The Crazies avoid the huge drop-off that is now typical for horror movies?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which is based on a popular series of YA novels, is demonstrating good legs.  It fell just 36% in its third weekend in theaters, earning an estimated $9.8 million and bringing its cumulative to $71.2 million.  It now appears that Percy Jackson has a good chance to break the $100 million mark.  This weekend the romcom Valentine’s Day became the first film of 2010 to earn more than $100 million.

Also during the past week Avatar became the first film to earn over $700 million domestically.  Even though that record-setting total has been greatly aided by ticket price inflation, it is still a formidable achievement.  Avatar remains potent overseas where it has now earned $1.844 billion, and where it has topped the worldwide box office for 11 straight weeks.  But the film is likely to suffer a major drop in its worldwide haul next weekend since it will lose a significant percentage of its 3D screens to Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.