Weekend Recap: Avatar is $95 M away from Titanic

Golden Globe winner Avatar is now the No. 3 film in domestic box office history, and just inches away from No. 2, The Dark Knight after another incredible take this past weekend of $42.8 million, down just 15 percent from the last weekend. And I’m still hearing about people who haven’t seen Avatar.

Avatar is now just under $100 million from becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States. Never say never. Just to note, below you’ll see the three-day totals from the weekend. The $505 M includes early MLK Jr. Day estimates.

Finally, however, we have seen a successful film in 2010. The Book of Eli outdid my predictions (but not necessarily those of other prognosticators) and earned just more than $30 million. Good for No. 1 any time Avatar is not in theaters.

1. Avatar – $42.8 M (weekend) … $493.3 M (gross)
2. The Book of Eli – $32.8 M … $32.8 M
3. The Lovely Bones – $17 M … $17.5 M
4. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel – $11.6 M … $192.7 M
5. Sherlock Holmes – $9.9 M … $180 M
6. The Spy Next Door – $9.6 M … $9.6 M
7. It’s Complicated – $7.8 M … $88.2 M
8. Leap Year – $5.8 M … $17.5 M
9. The Blind Side – $5.5 M … $226.8 M
10. Up in the Air – $5.45 M … $62.8 M

Doing very well despite the delayed release and unflattering reviews was The Lovely Bones with a pretty respectable $17 million. Doing the opposite, however, was Jackie Chan’s The Spy Next Door, which didn’t even crack $10 million. It did, however, crack a smile on my face to see America give the cold shoulder to this terrible film idea.

The only thing I should’ve called with my predictions was a slighter drop off for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel than that for Sherlock Holmes. I completely overlooked the 4-day weekend and that naturally helps kids’ movies. Only it didn’t help The Spy Next Door, that’s for sure.

Another note, last week’s No. 4 vampire flick Daybreakers completely dropped out of the Top 10. Perhaps with “Eli” as competition, it couldn’t get enough of a second-week audience. The film made $4.9 M, a staggering 67 percent drop from last week’s $15 M. Michael Cera comedy Youth in Revolt also fell more than 50 percent and out of the Top 10.