Box Office: 'Avatar' holds on, beats 'Darkness'

Weekend of January 29 – 31, 2010: 'Avatar' STILL on top; new releases doing so-so...

James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar” got one step closer to beating the domestic gross of “Titanic” this weekend by collecting another $30 million at the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Avatar” easily beat its competition by scoring an average of $9,759 per theater at 3,074 locations. The film’s total gross now stands at an impressive $594.4 million. Worldwide, Fox’s hit movie has generated 2.039 billion ever since its release.

At No. 2, Martin Campbell’s thriller “Edge of Darkness” bagged $17.1 million. Starring Mel Gibson, the film based on a BBC mini-series follows a detective who embarks on a perilous investigation into his daughter’s brutal murder.

Following in third place this weekend was new entry “When in Rome,” a disastrous romantic comedy that managed to grab $12 million from ticket sales at 2,456 locations. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the film stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

Staying put at No. 4 was “Tooth Fairy,” which lifted its cumulative gross to $26.1 million thanks to weekend earnings of $10 million. At No. 5, “The Book of Eli” pulled $8.7 million for a domestic total haul of $74.3 million after a three-week run.

Meanwhile, “Legion” slipped to No. 6 with $6.8 million, lifting its total haul to $28.6 million. Following in seventh place with $4.7 million was Peter Jackson’s big-screen adaptation of “The Lovely Bones,” which reached a cume of $38 million.

Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” picked up another $4.5 million at No. 8, bringing its total gross to $197.5 million. In ninth place, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” bagged $4 million for a total of $209.2 million.

Rounding out the top 10 this weekend was Nancy Meyers’ comedy “It’s Complicated,” which generated $3.7 million for a domestic total of $104 million.

It was no surprise to see “Avatar” finish as the weekend winner, but to be honest, I expected “Edge of Darkness” to perform a tad better than it did, especially considering it’s playing at 3,066 locations and received overall positive reviews.

Other than that, I am disappointed to see “When in Rome” finished that high still, even though I already knew it would find enough cinemagoers to pass the $10 million mark. Terrible comedies often do perform decent enough at the box office.  

Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)