If not for the release of James Cameron’s eagerly anticipated sci-fi epic Avatar this weekend’s box office would have been one of the least interesting in months, if not the entire year. Unlike The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which opened strong but has since faded from box office memory earning $4.3 million this weekend, Avatar will be a word of mouth success. Opening with $73 million domestically and $159 million abroad, Avatar is off to a good start. Expect Avatar to be a strong box office presence for the next couple of months at least.
Only two other movies made more than $10 million over the weekend, The Princess and the Frog and The Blind Side. With $12.2 million and a 49% drop it will be difficult to speculate on what the final numbers will be for Disney’s $100 million 2D animated movie. I only hope the film has the longevity to convince the heads at Disney to continue their re-invested interest in classical animation. Warner Brothers’ The Blind Side followed with $10 million. This film is truly the surprise hit of the season, earning $164 million with a relatively small budget of $29 million.
Other than Avatar, the only other new release in the top ten was Did You Hear About the Morgan’s? No I didn’t and nor do I care to thank you very much. This is the kind of picture that leaves me scratching my head at studio execs who okay these kinds of movies. Have you seen the trailer to this? Anyway, Morgan’s opened with $7 million and should be out of sight very soon.
Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, which I enjoyed for less than I thought I was going to, followed New Moon with $4 million. This one doesn’t look so good for Clint. Dropping over 50% the $60million film has grossed a mere $15.8 million thus far.
A Christmas Carol is still visiting with spirits with $3.4 million. Following Carol was the George Clooney lead Up in the Air. Expanding to 175 screens nationwide Air was up 29.5% earning $3.1 million this weekend.
The final two bore the heck out of me. Brothers grossed $2.6 million and Old Dogs $2.2 million. With the Christmas releases this week, such as Sherlock Holmes, perhaps these lame films will take leave of their spots in the top ten. It’s elementary dear Watson.
Word of mouth is what will kill Avatar, ask anyone who has seen it about the story, they all say it looks great; but no one says it has an engaging story with characters you care about or exciting plot twists or fantastic dialog. i couldn’t make past 45 min in a 2-d showing I was so bored with this dances with wolves remake.