January 03, 2010

'AVATAR' CROSSES $1BN MARK; 2ND & 3RD WEEKENDS' MINOR DROPS ARE UNPRECEDENTED (HWD)

By Paul Dergarabedian & Wiretap Staff

Momentum, momentum, momentum as the box-office year of 2010 starts out with a James Camron sized bang. Only the director of "Titanic" could create another worldwide sensation of this magnitude. Hitting $1.022 billion in just 17 days of release, "Avatar" has silenced all the naysayers who were fixated on the film's rather sizable budget and now has a real shot at becoming the second highest grossing film of all-time on a worldwide basis behind only "Titanic's" incredible $1.8 billion global total.

A second weekend drop of only 2% and this third weekend drop of only 10% are unprecedented in the annals of box-office tracking.

Worldwide Top 5 is as follows:

"Titanic" - $1.842B

"Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" - $1.129B

"Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - $1.061B

"Avatar" - $1.022B and climbing

"The Dark Knight" - $1.002B

IMAX continues to prove its essential contributions to "Avatar's" success with $66.4 million in global giant screen grosses to date. "Avatar" will eventually become IMAX's first DMR title to cross the magic $100 million mark and provides the optimal venue in which to see the film in all its 3-D glory.

In a repeat of Christmas Weekend's Top 5, Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" continues to be a major crowd-pleaser in the second spot. With a second weekend gross of $38.4 million and a mere 41% drop, the classic literary character is brought to life in this Guy Ritchie period piece. The film is at $140.7 domestically and is well on its way to $150 million and beyond.

Third place again belongs to "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" with $36.6 million in lower cost kid ticket price admissions against a chipmunk-sized 25% second weekend drop and a North American total of $157.3 million and climbing.

Universal's Nancy Meyers directed "It's Complicated," starring the great Meryl Streep landed again at fourth with a very solid second weekend hold of just 15% and $18.7 million in date crowd bucks. The film has earned $59.1 million and will continue to do well into the month of January.

Rounding out the Top 5 is Sandra Bullock and "The Blind Side." This is one of the true success stories of the year and with $209.1 million in domestic revenue and climbing, who can argue? Seven weeks in release and its stil driving fans wild with its inspirational storyline and Oscar-worthy performance from Ms. Bullock. $12.65 million for the weekend and an incredible 8% uptick in gross vs. last weekend, make this one a total winner.

There is no better way to kick off a box-office year than with a 50% advantage over the prior year's first weekend performance. Now the question is: Can we beat last year's first time ever billion dollar January at the box-office? If Cameron, Sherlock, Alvin and Meryl (and Denzel in Warner Bros.' "The Book of Eli" on Jan. 15) have anything to say about it, I say yes.