A trio of new films, one expanding into wide release following a one-month limited run, arrived on the North American box office scene this weekend, but none were potent enough to dislodge Avatar from the top spot. The trio posted numbers that ranged from mild to quite good as the top ten box office stayed quite strong over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend (estimates are based on the three-day weekend).
The biggest debut went to the Denzel Washington sci-fi action film The Book of Eli which opened on 3,111 screens for a solid estimated cume of $31.6 million. On Friday, the Hughes Brothers-directed tale actually took the top spot from Avatar with an opening day gross of $11.7 million (Avatar made $10.4 million on Friday), but relinquished the spot on Saturday as Cameron’s PG-13 fantasy surged ahead in ticket sales. Eli saw its gross rise only by roughly $1 million on Saturday, which usually indicates mixed word-of-mouth from viewers and a possibly rough road ahead at the box office. Still, Eli’s debut is notable, especially in light of its R-rating and grim apocalyptic tone.
Speaking of James Cameron’s blockbuster, the movie held tight and added another $41.6 million to its take to edge closer to the half-billion dollar mark ($492 million) after only one month of release (it should breeze by that milestone by Monday or Tuesday of this week). This weekend saw Cameron’s megahit pass the original Star Wars: A New Hope to become the third highest-grossing film of all time. Of course, if you factor in inflation, then Avatar would be roughly a half-billion dollars behind in sales to George Lucas’ 1977 classic. Still, $500 million in four weeks is remarkable no matter when it happens. With possible drops of only 20-30% each weekend, the film will easily pass The Dark Knight’s $533 million domestic take shortly en route to possibly passing Titanic’s $600 million domestic gross when all is said and done.
After spending a month in limited release in New York and Los Angeles where it struggled to make half a million bucks, Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones finally expanded to 2,563 screens for a so-so estimated three-day take of $17 million. The critically-reviled adaptation of Alice Siebold’s novel had its marketing campaign drastically revised over the past month or so by distributor Paramount, focusing more on teenage girls than adults (translation: the demographic that doesn’t read reviews).
The revised ad campaign might have worked for opening weekend, but the real test will come over the next few weeks to see if the tween set’s reaction winds up being more ‘OMG!’ than ‘WTF?’ (my reaction to the film). One thing is for certain: with its $100 million price tag, it will take divine intervention for Lovely Bones to be a profitable film.
The third opener of the weekend was the Jackie Chan family comedy The Spy Next Door arriving DOA with an estimated $9.7 million from 2,924 screens. The film was never expected to be big, but it was expected to do better since it is a holiday weekend. Look for it to move next door to other forgettable family flicks at your local Blockbuster in a few months.
Apparently, families were still catching up with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel to bother with the Jackie Chan opus, depositing another $11.2 million into the rodent’s coffers for a new estimated cume of $193 million. Fellow Christmas week release Sherlock Holmes pulled in another $9.8 million for a new to-date total of $180 million.
The remainder of the top ten was holdovers from the Christmas season as well as the first two weeks of January. It’s Complicated continues to pull in the adult crowd for another $7.6 million and a new take of approximately $89 million. After debuting softly last weekend, Leap Year held fairly well with a $5.8 million estimated take and a $17 million to-date gross. Watch for Amy Adams’ romantic comedy to finish near $30 million.
While the Baltimore Ravens got booted out of the playoffs Saturday night, the movie about one of their offensive tacklers, Michael Oher, was far from being down and out. The resilient The Blind Side pulled in another $5.6 million in sales this weekend which ups its total up to the $226 million mark. In tenth spot was another adult-oriented film, Up in the Air, also with an estimated $5.5 million take to bring its cume to $63 million.
Next weekend, the horror entry Legion’ the Harrison Ford/Brendan Frasier medical drama Extraordinary Measures and the Dwayne Johnson comedy The Tooth Fairy all make their box office debuts. Looks like another weekend at number one for Avatar.
Check back on Tuesday for our latest round of the Weekend Box Office Prophet game where you can predict what these films will make for a chance at prizes.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
