Aided by the surcharge on 3D showings, James Cameron’s Avatar raked in another $68.3 million this past weekend per studio estimates to bring its domestic cumulative box office total to $352.1 million. Avatar now becomes the highest weekend grossing film in its third weekend of release by smashing the previous $45 million record set by Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.
Avatar will have been in theaters for 17 days through Sunday. For comparison, Cameron’s Titanic earned $241 million through the same period.
When factoring in overseas ticket sales of $670 million, Avatar’s worldwide gross stands at $1.02 billion and it becomes only the fifth film ever behind Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Dark Knight. If Avatar remains strong, Titanic’s all-time record of $1.84 billion could be in jeopardy.
The wrap up for the record-breaking December box office season was kind to non sci-fi films as well with Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It’s Complicated, The Blind Side, Up in the Air and The Princess and the Frog all hitting double digit million marks.
The complete top 10 box office results for January 1-3, 2010 are as follows:
- 1. Avatar: $68.3m
- 2. Sherlock Holmes: $38.4m
- 3. Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: $36.6m
- 4. It’s Complicated: $18.7m
- 5. The Blind Side: $12.7m
- 6. Up in the Air: $11.4m
- 7. The Princess and the Frog: $10m
- 8. Did You Hear About the Morgans?: $5.2m
- 9. Nine: $4.3m
- 10. Invictus: $4.1m
Next weekend a trio of new films square off with Lionsgate’s vampire thriller Daybreakers, the Amy Adams romantic comedy Leap Year, and Michael Cera’s hip comedy Youth in Revolt.
Check back on Tuesday as we kick off the next round of the Weekend Box Office Prophet game where you can make your best prediction at what five films will make from Friday through Sunday for a chance at a prize or prizes.
