Box Office: 'Avatar' passes 'Dark Knight'
Franck TabouringWeekend of January 22 – 24: ‘Avatar’ prevails, passes ‘Dark Knight’
James Cameron’s sci-fi hit flick “Avatar” prevailed yet again at the North American box office this weekend with a solid $36 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Weekend earnings for the Fox hit movie dropped compared to last week’s, but “Avatar” easily beat its competition by scoring an average of $11,461 per theater at 3,141 locations.
“Avatar” also passed the $533 million domestic gross of “The Dark Knight,” lifting its cumulative gross to $552.7 million. The film is also on track to beat the worldwide total of Cameron’s “Titanic.”
This week’s new releases generated mixed results, but “Legion” delivered the best performance with a three-day gross of $18.2 million, enough for No. 2. The film follows the battle between humans and angels.
Meanwhile, “Tooth Fairy” opened in fourth place with $14.5 million from ticket sales at 3,344 locations. Starring Dwayne Johnson, the comedy follows a mean hockey player ordered to duty as a real tooth fairy.
Also opening this weekend was “Extraordinary Measures,” which finished seventh only with $7 million. Starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, the drama is playing at 2,549 locations.
At No. 3, “The Book of Eli” performed well with $17 million, reaching a domestic total of $62 million. Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” dropped to No. 5 with $8.8 million and a cume of $31.6 million.
Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” slipped to No. 6, bagging $7.1 million for a total haul of $191.5 million. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” picked up another $6.5 million, reaching a cume of $204.2 million.
Still doing pretty well after five weeks in release was Nancy Meyers’ comedy “It’s Complicated,” which lifted its domestic total to $98.6 million after weekend earnings of $6.1 million at No. 9.
Rounding out the top 10 was Jackie Chan’s action comedy “The Spy Next Door,” which pulled $4.7 million for a cumulative gross of $18.7 million after a little more than one week in release.
Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)
Reader Comments (1)
yeah avatar really sinks the dark knight. it is worth to watch this cinema thrice.