“Dear John” opened at No. 1 this weekend, with a stellar $32.4 million debut weekend. That gives the picture a mediocre 2.3x weekend multiplier, but the first three days alone puts the picture well ahead of its $25 million budget. More importantly, this is the biggest weekend in Super Bowl weekend history, as well as the biggest opening weekend of all-time for a pure romantic drama. The film played to an 84 percent female crowd, and 64 percent of the audience was under 21. This is the first real test of opening weekend mettle for Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum, and both passed with flying colors. Of course, this number raises new questions about how much credit Tatum deserved for the $54.7 million debut of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Conversely, as I mentioned last September, one wonders how much better “Jennifer’s Body” could have opened had the marketing focused even a little on co-star Seyfried and not just Megan Fox. This also makes Nicholas Sparks the first brand-name author since the mid-’90s heyday of Michael Crichton, Stephen King and John Grisham. Regardless, this is a smashing debut and should weather the storm of “Valentine’s Day: The Movie” as this far more serious love story will prove solid counter-programming to the overtly comedic all-star mush-fest (or as I’ve heard the film called: “Garry Marshall Calls in All His Favors Before He Dies: The Movie”).
Yes, yes, “Dear John” dethroned “Avatar” at the top of the box office over Super Bowl weekend. Wow… a film’s opening weekend managed to exceed another film’s eighth weekend. I got into this in some detail on my Open Salon blog over the weekend, but I personally think that the whole ‘”Dear John” beat “Avatar”‘ story is relatively pointless. And I certainly enjoy the irony of pundits jumping up and down over the fact that a very female-driven film defeated another film that itself was playing very well for women. “Avatar” writer/director James Cameron is a man. “Dear John” author Nicolas Sparks and director Lasse Hallström are also men. Both films involve (to differing degrees of emphasis) romantic drama in the shadow of war. Both films involve handsome but somewhat bland male leads (Sam Worthington and Channing Tatum) being out-acted and generally outclassed by their female partners (Zoe Saldana and Amanda Seyfried). Trying to spin the weekend’s box office as the girls smacking down the boys on Super Bowl weekend is not only relatively false, but awfully condescending and sexist to boot. It’s basically saying: Wow, a “girl movie” was able to compete in a male dominated marketplace! That’s so shocking! No one could have predicted that because girl movies are lame! Besides, we all know that Channing Tatum will walk away with the lion’s share of the credit, just as the media bent over backwards to give Ryan Reynolds credit for “The Proposal.” Tatum will get his pick of franchises, while Seyfried will get to choose between being the token love interest/damsel in distress in one of said franchises or starring in another installment of “I’m Nothing Without a Man.”
But weep not for James Cameron, for “Avatar” still pulled in another $23.6 million. Having crossed the $600 million mark and overtaken “Titanic” as the top domestic grosser of all time, “Avatar” now sits with a massive $630 million domestic gross. The film had its second-biggest weekend plunge yet, dropping a whole 24 percent in weekend eight. Still, the comparatively large drop lends credence to the idea that the film was playing very well with females, hence it was hurt by direct demo competition. The film’s new worldwide total is a whopping $2.204 billion, or just short of the magic $2.39 billion mark (at which point it will have doubled the worldwide take of every other film ever made save “Titanic”). I suppose if you wanted to nitpick, you could say that “Avatar” was number one for a mere seven weekends while “Titanic” was number one for 15 weekends. As many of you probably recall, “Titanic” was No. 1 all the way up until April 3, when it was dethroned by “Lost in Space” (quick — what are the two connections between “Lost in Space” and “Dear John”?). Like “Avatar’s” close calls with “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Book of Eli,” “Titanic” actually lost the Friday race three times during its spree, to “U.S. Marshals,” “The Man in the Iron Mask” and the re-release of “Grease,” respectively.
It now shares its top in the top 10 for consecutive No. 1 weekends with “Ghostbusters” and “On Golden Pond,” and shares the No. 12 spot for total number one weekends with the Henry Fonda melodrama. Slightly more troubling (relative to a picture that’s already the biggest moneymaker of all time) is that “Avatar” just barely beat “Titanic’s” $23 million record for the biggest eighth weekend. By next weekend, barring a miracle, “Avatar” will likely start grossing less on a weekend-to-weekend basis than “Titanic” (the doomed ocean romancer actually went up 22 percent for a $28 million “Valentine’s Day”-infused eighth weekend). Still, the movie is going to take a huge hit on March 5 anyway, when it loses its IMAX and many of its 3D screens to Tim Burton’s “Return to Oz,” I mean “Alice in Wonderland.” The goal from here on out is to cross the fabled $700 million mark and try for $2.5 billion worldwide before all is said and done. Point being, “Avatar” may have lost its No. 1 weekend ranking, but the phenomenon is still ‘king of the world’ for all intents and purposes.
Third place went to the horribly marketed “From Paris With Love.” The John Travolta/Jonathan Rhys Meyers action vehicle attempted to replicate the Super Bowl opening of “Taken” (same director), but Lionsgate forgot that 20th Century Fox did a bang-up job marketing the Liam Neeson vehicle, with a tense and provocative teaser that gave away almost nothing from the film’s second and third acts. Lionsgate released a flurry of confused and off-putting trailers (John Travolta is: the Ugly American!) that couldn’t decide whether to sell the ultra-violence or the comedy. Frankly the earlier film benefited just a touch from the widespread availability of DVD-quality bootlegs a month prior to the U.S. release. Since the film played a little older than the normal downloading crowd, the youngsters had a month to tell their parents that grown-up star Liam Neeson’s new action picture was all kinds of bad-ass. So “Taken” opened with $24.7 million while “From Paris With Love” opened with just $8.1 million. To quote Lionsgate’s flagship character, “game over.”
Martin Campbell’s “Edge of Darkness” plunged a disturbing 59 percent in weekend two, meaning that it won’t come close to its $80 million production budget. I finally saw the picture and it’s better than I expected (the second half is awfully strong). But it’s more a portrait of wrenching grief than an action picture or even a thriller. Point being, the ads tried to sell it as a hard action thriller and now everybody knows otherwise. Its second weekend was $7 million and the film now sits at $29 million. When all is said and done, this will be Mel Gibson’s lowest-grossing vehicle since his directorial debut, “The Man Without a Face” (the dark, character-driven drama grossed $24 million in summer 1993). Oh well, better luck next time, Campbell and Gibson. “The Tooth Fairy” dropped 35 percent and now sits with $34 million, as does “Legion.” Last weekend’s other opener, “When in Rome,” fell 55 percent, leaving its 10-day total at $20 million. “The Book of Eli” crossed the $80 million mark, although $100 million may be out of reach. Still, as Denzel Washington vehicles go, this one ranks sixth at $82 million. Next on the list is the $88 million gross of “Inside Man” and the $91 million take of “Crimson Tide,” both of which are approachable. Oh, and “Sherlock Holmes” finally crossed the $200 million mark, so we’ll see a sequel in the next couple years.
The biggest beneficiary of Oscar nominations was “Crazy Heart,” which capitalized on last week’s nominations for stars Jeff Bridges (the likely winner for Best Actor) and Maggie Gyllenhaal by expanding to 819 screens. I still contend that opening this acclaimed country-music drama on Super Bowl weekend may have hindered the potential of the film’s wide release opening, but it still pulled in a decent $3.6 million, which leaves the $8 million picture with $11 million and a month to play wide before the awards are given out. The rest of the Oscar field was as expected. The more mainstream nominees (“Up in the Air,” “The Blind Side,” “Avatar,” “The Lovely Bones,” etc) were relatively unaffected. Many of the nominees are already on DVD (“A Serious Man,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up,” “The Hurt Locker,” “District 9,” etc.). But those smallish films that could be helped (“An Education,” “Precious,” “The Last Station”) generally received relatively large upswings at least in terms of pure weekend-to-weekend percentage changes.
Finally, there were a bazillion limited-release openings this weekend, and none of them particularly impressed. Of note, “The Red Riding Trilogy” and “Terribly Happy” did $15,000 and $11,000 on their respective single screens while “Frozen” and “District 13: Ultimatum” did a whopping $1,200 per in their respective 106 and nine-screen debuts. That’s about all the news for this weekend. Join us around Monday evening for a holiday wrap-up of the President’s Day long weekend, where the holdovers face off against three major new releases. Joe Johnston’s delayed and much-fussed-over “The Wolfman” opens against “Valentine’s Day.” Plus Chris Columbus, the man who cast the Harry Potter series, attempts to launch a new young-adult fantasy franchise with “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.”
“Avatar” won the box office derby for the seventh straight weekend, taking the record for the biggest seventh weekend gross ($30 million) from “Titanic” ($25 million). Dropping just 14 percent, the unstoppable monster has now grossed $594 million, meaning it will cross “Titanic’s” $600 million gross in the next two or three days, perhaps on Tuesday, when the Oscar nominations are announced. Early last week, James Cameron’s amazing hit surpassed “Titanic’s” worldwide box office gross to become the world’s highest-grossing movie. This weekend it crossed the seemingly unfathomable $2 billion mark worldwide. You can babble all you want about inflation, 3D and IMAX ticket prices, and what have you, but check out this little statistic: When “Avatar” reaches $2.239 billion, which it will in the next two or three weeks, it will have doubled the worldwide take of every other movie ever made except “Titanic.” It will also soon have a $1 billion lead over any movie not directed by James Cameron. There’s not much more to say at this point than “wow” and “don’t make a sequel,” so let’s move on.
Second place went to the Mel Gibson comeback vehicle “Edge of Darkness.” The Martin Campbell suspense thriller (remade from the director’s own 1985 BBC miniseries) pulled in $17 million. All eyes were focused on this one, as it was Gibson’s first starring role since 2002′s “Signs.” The opening isn’t terrific but it’s not terrible either. The film was advertised as a variation on “Taken,” but anyone paying attention to the preview could tell that it was more of a procedural investigation drama than a slam-bang thriller. The opening is right in line with Martin Campbell’s non-blockbuster debuts, just above the $16.3 million opening for 2005′s “The Legend of Zorro” and the $15.5 million debut of 2000′s “Vertical Limit.” Considering this picture cost $80 million (or about what the other two Campbell films cost), I’m sure Warner is hoping for something closer to “Vertical Limit’s” $69 million finish as opposed to “The Legend of Zorro’s” $46 million end total. Pardon the pun, but this was neither his brightest day nor his blackest night.
For Gibson, this is his lowest opening since “Braveheart” back in May 1995, and it’s actually a bit under the $17.4 million debut of “Maverick” back in May 1994. Of course, opening weekends have changed quite a bit even since Gibson semi-retired from acting back in 2002, and of course he’s had some major PR problems in the last eight years. On the plus side, the film had a solid 3x multiplier, so solid word of mouth is likely. Seventy percent of the audience came out for Gibson, meaning he still has a fan-base even when a film depends purely on him to sell it. The poster and trailer were flat at best, and, to be honest, I would have had absolutely no interest in this one if not for my love of all things Martin Campbell. We’ll see how Gibson fares with a project that has more to offer than just his star power.
Third place went to “When in Rome,” which pulled in $12 million. While the number isn’t spectacular, it’s actually a pretty solid opening for the two very untested leads, Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel (let’s be honest, you probably never watched “Veronica Mars”). Considering how awful the marketing was for this one, Bell and Duhamel should get quite a bit of credit for this thing opening at all. After all, this apparent stinker easily topped the $9 million of “Leap Year,” which starred critical darling and “Enchanted” star Amy Adams. Kristen Bell is no Katherine Heigl, but this is a solid first step if she wants to climb higher in the rom-com genre. Fourth place went to “The Tooth Fairy,” which dipped just 28 percent for a $10 million second-weekend and a $26 million 10-day total. Not much more to say, but the film should reach its $48 million budget before home video. “The Book of Eli” dropped 44 percent, and its new total is just $6 million short of its $80 million budget. $100 million will be a struggle, but the Denzel Washington/Gary Oldman post-apocalyptic drama could still squeak in there.
“Legion” plunged 61 percent in its second weekend, but it has already exceeded its $26 million budget so no harm, no foul. Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” dropped another 43 percent, pulling in $4.7 million in its third weekend of wide release. Its new total is $38 million and Paramount can only hope for a slight uptick next weekend on account of Stanley Tucci’s likely Oscar nomination. “Sherlock Holmes” still ended up $3 million short of the $200 million mark. Warner must be pretty sure that it’ll get there, as they are advertising the film as a $200 million domestic grosser and a $400 million worldwide earner in the DVD/Blu-ray press release that went out this week. As of now, the domestic total is $197 million and the international numbers rest at $394 million. Also, for those who care, Joel Silver and Warner Bros. are fast-tracking a sequel to this one, having basically pulled director Guy Ritchie off “Lobo” in order to get him back to work in the dark alleys of Victorian London. I suppose the only question is what big star gets to play Holmes’ arch-nemesis. Oh, and pundits/critics, let’s lay off the gay panic next time around, OK?
“Alvin and the Chipmunks” is now at $209 million, which puts it in striking distance of the original’s $217 million U.S. total. “It’s Complicated” passed the $100 million mark over the last week and now sits at $104 million. “The Princess and the Frog” finally crossed $100 million just today, so a firm mazeltov to Disney. “Crazy Heart” pulled in another $2.2 million in its last weekend of limited release, and its total is now $6.5 million. Ironically, while next weekend will coincide with Jeff Bridges’ Oscar nomination, it will also put the country music/heartland drama smack dab into Super Bowl weekend, which may prove to be an issue for troubled Bad Blake’s national debut, although Fox Searchlight would certainly do well to buy a national ad spot or two during the game. “The Young Victoria” has quietly approached the $8 million mark, so its prospects should only brighten if Emily Blunt pulls of a somewhat unexpected best-actress nomination on Tuesday. Nearly surefire nominee Colin Firth’s “A Single Man” is at $5 million and fellow sure thing Carey Mulligan’s “An Education” is at $8.8 million.
“Up in the Air” lost 277 screens and 30 percent, but its total now sits at $73 million. With the expected nominations in nearly every major category, the George Clooney vehicle could very well reach $100 million, especially if it wins one or two major awards. As for best-director frontrunner Kathryn Bigelow, you can rent “The Hurt Locker” on DVD and Blu-ray. We can all blame Summit Entertainment’s non-existent marketing campaign and inability to mount a wide release for what should have been a mainstream pulse-racer over the summer. No more excuses, go rent or buy “The Hurt Locker” (and rent the equally under-seen “Whip It” while you’re at it).
That’s the major news for this weekend. Next weekend sees the wide release of the John Travolta action comedy “From Paris With Love” (directed by Pierre Morel, the helmer of “District 13″ and “Taken”), as well as the Amanda Seyfried/Channing Tatum romantic drama “Dear John.” There are 10 films opening in limited release, including the sequel to “District 13,” so expect a lot of puny totals and a few mighty per-screen averages.
It was business as usual this weekend, with “Avatar” again leading the pack and a well-marketed newcomer fairing well in number two. There was a genuine Golden Globes bump this weekend, with all of the big winners showing much smaller drops than last weekend. Still, the story again is all about “Avatar.” The big engine that could crossed dropped just 16 percent in its sixth weekend, taking in $36 million for a record sixth weekend (“Titanic” had the previous sixth-weekend record with $25 million). Its new domestic total is $552 million. Yup, it crossed $533 million sometime yesterday afternoon, so it has now surpassed “The Dark Knight” as the second-highest grossing film in the U.S. And there’s a pretty decent chance that it will close out the month of January by toppling “Titanic’s” $600.7 million record. Internationally, at $1.836 billion, it’s just a skip and a jump away from “Titanic’s” seemingly insurmountable $1.842 billion worldwide record. Wow… just wow.
Where it goes from there is dependent on how well it’s represented at the Oscars and how many 3D screens it can keep when “Alice in Wonderland” opens on March 5, the very weekend that “Avatar” may be pulling an Oscar sweep. Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” will take each and every IMAX screen and most of the 3D screens. How ironic that “Avatar” will finally take a massive box office hit on the very weekend it (most likely) sweeps the Oscars. The biggest film of all time is more or less a limited engagement as a result. Still, I’d be surprised to not see some IMAX screens holding midnight “Avatar” showings after the first weekend of the Burton quasi-sequel. On the plus side, if “Alice in Wonderland” under-performs (not likely), then Fox may have some leveraging power to return “Avatar” to some of its 3D screens come March 12. Of course, there is a steady stream of IMAX and/or 3D releases from March 5 on out, with “How to Train Your Dragon”, possibly “Clash of the Titans” (Warner is considering 3D and a date switch to April 2 for the somewhat finished film), “Hubble 3D” and eventually “Iron Man 2″ for the next two months. It’s a strange situation (a mega blockbuster being kneecapped by screen losses caused not by lack of grosses but by contractual obligation), but one that most studios would envy.
The big new opener of the weekend was another well-marketed Sony Screen Gems horror picture, “Legion.” With a saturation-level print campaign, a compelling trailer, and an easy-to-explain concept (fallen angel sides with humanity when God turns wrathful), this one pulled in $18 million for a solid number two finish. I’m sure the religious angle didn’t hurt either, as religious horror films often pull in the kind of crowds who wouldn’t otherwise be caught dead at a horror picture (i.e., the $33 million opening of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”). Ironically, this Paul Bettany God-power horror flick opened on the same weekend as his poorly-received Charles Darwin biopic, “Creation.” The latter film opened on seven screens for a total gross of $52,000 (a poor $7,429 per screen average). Facing direct demo competition, the also somewhat spiritual “The Book of Eli” tumbled a slightly higher-than-expected 48 percent, grossing $17 million and ending day 10 with an otherwise solid $62 million. $100 million is still a possibility for the Denzel Washington end-of-the-world action flick, but it will easily reach its $80 million budget regardless.
The next opener was Dwayne Johnson’s “The Tooth Fairy.” The $14.5 million opening wasn’t a disaster, but it’s tragically his second-lowest opening weekend, behind only “The Gridiron Gang’s” $14.4 million. Whether boys were just turned off by posters showing off The Rock in fairy wings, or whether the trailers wrongly sold cheap gags instead of an actual story, this family comedy didn’t play nearly as well as “The Game Plan.” Still, this one only cost $48 million, so it’ll be just fine in the long run. Oh well, maybe next time he has a movie to promote, he’ll just do what he does best, which is host “Saturday Night Live.” Our country needs The Rock Obama now more than ever. Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” dropped 48 percent in its second weekend of wide-release, with a $8.8 million second-weekend and a $31.6 million domestic total. It’s not a spectacular total, but Paramount should be commended for avoiding complete catastrophe for this very expensive Oscar-bait that wasn’t. Hopefully it can get a decent boost from Stanley Tucci’s (deserved) Oscar nomination in a couple weeks, which will likely be the film’s only nomination.
The final major opener was “Extraordinary Measures.” The CBS Film’s debut parlayed lousy reviews and a marketing campaign that made the picture look like a cheap made-for-TV movie into an opening weekend of just $7 million. Both actors (Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser) were coming off major hits (Ford’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and Fraser’s “The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D”), so this has to be a come down even for a project that is well outside their comfort zone. Weep not for either of them. Harrison Ford has the buzzed-about comedy (something he should have been doing for ages) “Morning Glory” opening in July (it teams him with Rachel McAdams, Jeff Goldblum and Diane Keaton). Brendan Fraser has “Furry Vengeance” for April 2, which is an animals and kids fantasy comedy that is right in his safe zone. Weep instead for CBS Films, which inexplicably spent $50 million making and marketing something that should have cost under $20 million.
Next we once again discuss the Christmas Three. “Sherlock Holmes” was aided by Robert Downey Jr’s inexplicable Golden Globes win (great speech though), as the film fell just 28 percent despite losing 500 screens for a new total of $191 million. It will cross $200 million next weekend, so best of luck on the sequel. Crossing $200 million this weekend was “Alvin and the Chipmunks II”, which ended the weekend with $204 million. Both are going ever-higher on the “biggest films never to be number 01 list.” Crossing $100 million in the next couple days will be “It’s Complicated” and “The Princess and the Frog,” which ended their weekends with $98 million and $99 million respectively. “It’s Complicated” fell just 23 percent, implying that those who wanted to see Golden Globe winner Meryl Streep in theaters chose the available film over the actual winning movie that’s been on DVD for months.
Golden Globe, SAG winner and now-presumptive Oscar front-runner Sandra Bullock saw “The Blind Side” drop just 20 percent in its 10th weekend, with a new total of $234 million. It will soon surpass “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” ($241 million) as the biggest-grossing film that is a female star vehicle. “Up in the Air” (down 18 percent) will cross the $70 million mark in the next few days, and it has a decent shot at $100 million if it can score a major Oscar victory come March. As of now, it’s already the seventh-highest grossing film to never reach the top five on any given weekend, and it could reach number one for that milestone when it’s finished. “Crazy Heart” capitalized on Jeff Bridges’s Golden Globe and SAG win, expanding to 93 screens and earning over $15,000 per screen. The country music drama has now earned $3.9 million and should see a slow and steady upswing as Jeff Bridges marches toward his (at-long-last) Oscar win. As usual, the rest of the list is filled with Oscar contenders that are struggling to survive in limited release (“An Education”, “A Single Man”, “Broken Embraces”, “The Young Victoria”), and good luck to all of them.
That’s it for this weekend. Next weekend has the high-profile return of Mel Gibson, as action-god Martin Campbell (“Goldeneye,” “Mask of Zorro,” “Casino Royale,” “Green Lantern”) remakes his 1980s BBC miniseries “Edge of Darkness.” Also opening wide is the Kristen Bell/Josh Duhamel romantic comedy, “When in Rome,” which boasts the least appealing marketing campaign in recent memory (crappy trailer + creepy poster = not promising). Thanks to my love for all things Campbell (the guy directed “Homicide: Life on the Street’s” “Three Men and Adena” for goodness sake), count me as one Jewish moviegoer who’s excited to see Mel Gibson’s acting comeback.
I’ve written a bit about “Avatar’s” unstoppable run elsewhere, so I won’t repeat myself too much here. For the record, James Cameron’s multiple Golden Globe-winner dropped just 15 percent in weekend five, for a $42.8 million three-day take and a $54.6 million four-day take. The previous record for a fifth weekend was Titanic’s $30 million take. Each of “Avatar’s” three January weekends ($68 million, $50 million and now $41 million) have scored the top three January weekends of all time. The next biggest is “Cloverfield’s” $40 million opening from 2008. “Avatar’s” new total is $505 million, and it topped the $500 million mark in just 32 days, 12 days fewer than it took “The Dark Knight” to pass that milestone. At this rate, it will sail past “Titanic’s” $600 million domestic gross by either the end of January or beginning of February. At well over $1.6 billion in worldwide grosses, it is less than $200 million away from “Titanic’s” unfathomable $1.8 billion total. Frankly, there are only so many different ways to say “holy f&^!ing sh$&!”, so let’s move on.
While it had to settle for number two, Denzel Washington’s “The Book of Eli” was no slouch by any standard. It opened with $32.7 million over three days and $38 million over four days. Despite my misgivings about the somewhat goofy trailers, this was sold as a hard R-rated action flick that showcased Washington killing people in all kinds of merry ways, and that was exactly the right sell. This was Washington’s second-biggest three-day debut of all time, behind “American Gangster’s” $43.5 million take in November 2007. Still, you could argue that the latter was helped by co-star Russell Crowe, so we can certainly count this as Washington’s biggest opening for a stand-alone star vehicle. Regardless, this Hughes brothers picture (their first since “From Hell” in 2001) marks a strong commercial comeback as the rest of their pictures combined have grossed just over the $8o million that this picture cost to produce. With strong overseas numbers in store, this is likely a solid profit maker for Warner Bros. and all else involved.
Next up is the at-long-last wide-release of Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.” Delayed at the last minute from its intended Dec. 12 release date, it has instead languished in a month-long, three-screen limited run where it has amassed just $444,000. Still, the subject matter and the popularity of the original novel was enough to get the critically-slammed fantasy to a $17 million three-day and $20.5 million four-day opening weekend. Paramount has quietly resold this movie as a teen-girl friendly drama about an obsessed father avenging his murdered daughter. As with Mel Gibson’s upcoming “Edge of Darkness,” the marketing for “The Lovely Bones” was retooled to fit into the “Taken” mold. For now, the resale seems to have worked. Still, the picture cost $100 million so it still has some work to do. It will be interesting to see how fans of the original book react to this relatively unfaithful adaptation. My personal dislike of the film aside, Peter Jackson has more than earned a mulligan and I just hope that Stanley Tucci gets his much deserved Oscar nomination.
Next up are the three victims of “Avatar.” While “Alvin and the Chipmunks 2,” “Sherlock Holmes” and “It’s Complicated” have performed superbly since their Christmas weekend release, they have been completely overshadowed by the stunning success of you-know-what. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” has now amassed $196 million, “Sherlock Holmes” has delivered $180 million, and “It’s Complicated” has grossed $88 million. The Robert Downey Jr. vehicle (no, he didn’t deserve a Golden Globe, but he gave a lovely speech) and the Chipmunk epic will both end up in the top-five list for biggest grossing movies never to be number one for a weekend (“Sherlock Holmes” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks 2″ both temporarily knocked “Avatar” off the perch on their respective opening days). Expect sequels for both within the next two years or so. “It’s Complicated” will likely cross $100 million just as the Oscar nominations are announced. It’s hoping for a screenplay nod and a supporting -actor nomination for Alec Baldwin.
Also opening was the Jackie Chan family comedy, “The Spy Next Door.” Despite looking like a film that was made specifically to hurt longtime fans of the aging action star, this “Pacifier” ripoff opened with a $9.6 million three-day and $13 million four-day start. Come what may, low-intensity kid-friendly adventures may be the place where Chan plays out his career, and even his “Karate Kid” remake is getting something resembling good buzz. Amy Adams’ “Leap Year” has now grossed $17 million on a $19 million budget. “The Blind Side” added another $6.5 million over four days, bringing up its domestic total to $227 million. Sandra Bullock’s (deserved) Golden Globe win will only increase the film’s cachet, as will Bullock’s inevitable Oscar nomination (where she’s neck-and-neck with Meryl Streep) and the film’s possible best-picture nomination. The other big Oscar-bait movie that could, George Clooney’s “Up in the Air”, brought its domestic take to $64 million. That means that this film is now officially Clooney’s biggest movie not involving Batman, all-star Vegas heists, or CGI waves.
There is not much else to report. “Daybreakers” plummeted 67 percent in its second three-day weekend, ending its 11th day with $25 million (on a budget of $20 million). “The Princess and the Frog” is one or two weekends away from the $100-million mark, so let’s make it happen people. “A Single Man” expanded to over 200 screens and crossed the $3 million mark. Any additional heat will depend on Colin Firth’s likely best-actor nomination. Golden Globe winner Jeff Bridges’ “Crazy Heart” had a modest expansion to 74 screens and crossed $2.2 million in the bargain. Expect a slow and steady upswing as the beloved Bridges is now the popular favorite to win an Oscar this February. Finally, the last of the Oscar-bait films went into limited release this weekend, as the Christopher Plummer/Helen Mirren biopic “The Last Station” opened on three screens and grossed $98,700 over four days.
Join us next Sunday for a relatively active weekend. The wide openers are “Extraordinary Measures,” the medical mystery/true-life drama with Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, the supernatural horror pic “Legion” (about an angel who defends humanity against a wrathful God), and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s latest family friendly vehicle, “The Tooth Fairy” (also starring Billy Crystal and Ashley Judd). Opening in limited release are “Creation” (starring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as the pious Mrs. Darwin), the French film “Girl on the Train” (with Catherine Deneuve) and the Argentine film “The Paranoids.”
This is almost getting boring. Yes, “Avatar” grossed $48 million this weekend, crushing the fourth-weekend record (“Spider-Man” and “Titanic” both grossed $28 million in their fourth weekends). Yes, it dropped a mere 29 percent in its first non-holiday weekend. Yes, it’s now at $429 million, the seventh-biggest domestic grosser of all time in just under a month. And no, it probably won’t be slowing down as next weekend is another holiday weekend, so we can expect to see another sub-30 percent drop. By the end of Martin Luther King day weekend, it’ll likely surpass “Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace” ($431 million), “ET: The Extra Terrestrial,” “Shrek 2″ ($441 million) and “Star Wars” ($461 million) to become the third-biggest domestic grosser of all time. So at this point, the only questions remaining are whether it can surpass the $533 million gross of “The Dark Knight” (probably) and the $600 million gross of Titanic (possibly, especially if Oscar smiles accordingly). With $1.33 billion in the worldwide bank, it is just over $500 million away from breaking “Titanic’s” seemingly unsinkable $1.8 billion record. You can babble on about inflation all you want, but at the rate this thing is going, it could very well break both of “Titanic’s” records and just keep on going. Because, I’ve never ever seen legs and constancy like this, not since “Titanic.” Whichever movie eventually takes “Avatar” out of the top spot will likely become the answer to a trivia question, just like “Lost in Space.”
And it probably will keep its top-ranking next weekend too, as Denzel Washington has only one opening above $28 million (“Inside Man”). The $43.5 million debut of “American Gangster” had the benefit of a Russell Crowe team-up and terrific advance reviews. Denzel Washington may be the most consistent opening weekend draw in the business, but that consistency is usually around $20-25 million. With absolutely no advance word of mouth, no helpful co-stars, and a trailer that has been getting unintentional laughs in theaters for months now (as my wife likes to say when she sees the posters, “Who runs Barter Town? Gary Oldman runs Barter Town!”), “The Book of Eli” isn’t going to have the stuff to take out our favorite blue warriors. Had Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” been opening fresh, it might have had a chance (popular director, beloved novel, notable cast, etc). But it’s opening wide after a month of lousy reviews and mediocre limited-release business (it has yet to reach $500,000 on its three screens). Point being, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic will likely remain number one for six weeks, only possibly falling on the 29th of January to Mel Gibson’s “Edge of Darkness.”
Meanwhile, in the regular, predictable world of box office, “Sherlock Holmes” dropped 54 percent for a $16.6 million third weekend and a $165 million total (it’s at $251 million worldwide). As I’ve said earlier, this thing only cost about $100 million, so if Warner Bros can keep the sequel at a similar price tag, and bag a major star to play the oh-so-subtly hinted-at next villain, there’s no reason this can’t be a franchise. Oddly enough, since the movie isn’t nearly as slam-bang action-ish as the trailers make it seem, and the pacing is relatively leisurely, I’d imagine that this is one blockbuster that will actually play better on DVD or television. ”Alvin and the Chipmunks 2″ (I’m tired of looking up how to spell the unique suffix) grossed another $16.3 million. Its new total is $177 million, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Of note, both of the above films entered the all-time top-10 list for films that were never number one at the weekend box office.
Now we get to our first of three new openers. The Lionsgate vampire drama “Daybreakers” opened to a solid $15 million. The reviews were pretty good, and the geek love had been building since Comic-Con. Sure, Screen Gems might have gotten this one to $20 million, but they also would have likely cut the film to a PG-13. At a cost of just $20 million, this will be a major long-term profit maker. In another of Lionsgate’s occasional two-weekend whammies, they’ll be opening Jackie Chan’s “The Spy Next Door” next weekend. The PG-rated “Pacifier” rip-off will also not be challenging “Avatar’s” reign. “It’s Complicated” was in fifth place, dropping 41% for a new total of $76 million. Since it does not face any real demo competition until “Valentine’s Day” on February 12th, the Nancy Myers dramedy probably won’t need Oscar nominations to get to $100 million.
Our next opener is “Leap Year,” which pulled in $9.9 million. The critically-savaged romantic comedy was about 50 percent behind “Bride Wars” on the same weekend last year, but Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson are both bigger stars than critical-darling Amy Adams, and the latter film had a simple premise that could be stated in two sentences on a poster. For a film that depended entirely on Adams to sell it, this opening isn’t half-bad. The $19 million film should reach at least $25 million before finding a second life on DVD. The unstoppable “The Blind Side” dropped 34%, bringing its new total to $219 million. It’s already becoming the biggest-grossing ‘based on a true story’ movie of all time (not counting the historically debatable “Passion of the Christ”), and it’s easily Sandra Bullock’s biggest movie ever in the United States. As for the boasting this week that the film was the highest grossing film ever top-lined by a woman, they were forgetting “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and the Helen Hunt/Bill Paxton tornado epic “Twister” (both $241 million). But give it a few more weeks, especially if Bullock gets the expected Best Actress Oscar nomination.
“Up in the Air” dropped 33 percent despite expanding by 323 theaters. Still, weep not for this presumptive Oscar front-runner, the George Clooney drama has grossed $54 million, more than “Michael Clayton” ($49 million), and “Syriana” ($50 million). By the end of next weekend, it will have surpassed “Burn After Reading” ($60.3 million) and “Three Kings” ($60.6 million) to become the top-grossing Clooney film not involving Vegas heists, caped crusaders, or giant CGI waves. The Michael Cera comedy “Youth In Revolt” is our last new opener. Like so many recent Weinstein Co. films, this one had a severely delayed release and limited funds for advertising and prints (it was only on 1,873 screens). Still, $7 million isn’t a complete wash for the $18 million picture. Still, with Jesse Eisenberg nipping at his heels, Cera needs a major hit within the next year or two. Alas, the top ten ends with “The Princess and the Frog,” the fantastic 2D Disney cartoon that now sits at just $92 million. It will get to $100 million the hard way, but it was crippled by a botched two-screen Thanksgiving weekend release which caused all of the media coverage to occur during a two-week period when no one could actually see the film. By the time it went wide on December 11, everyone was talking about “Avatar.”
Sadly, the most interesting limited release opener, Tim Allen’s semi-autobiographical “Crazy on the Outside,” tanked — earning just $75,000 on 75 screens (guilty as charged, I didn’t see it either this weekend). ”Twilight Saga: New Moon” crossed the $290 million mark and will now slowly, desperately try to crawl to $300 million. If there was still a viable second-run theater market in this country, it’d be an easy feat. Now, not so much. Below the top 10 are a flurry of awards-bait movies that are simply trying to stay alive until the Oscar nominations at month’s-end. Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” is at $33 million, and would love to cross $40 million by the time the nominations are announced (not likely). “Crazy Heart” expanded to 33 theaters and crossed $1 million. “Nine” continues to tank, as the so-bad-that-Rob Marshall-might-get-fired-from-’Pirates of the Caribbean 4′” $80 million musical sits at just $18 million. ”A Single Man” crossed the $2 million mark and “The Young Victoria” now sits at $4.5 million.
As noted above, next weekend is the four-day weekend Martin Luther King Day holiday. Opening are “The Spy Next Door,” “The Book of Eli,” and the wide release of “The Lovely Bones.” The British drama “Fish Tank” opens from IFC Films on two screens, but you can probably already catch it on-demand if your cable provider allows it.
Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in "Dear John" 
Sigourney Weaver in "Avatar" 
In this video game image released by Ubisoft, a scene is shown from "Avatar:The Game." (AP Photo/Ubisoft)(Credit: AP) 
Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon 
