Three weekends of at least $68 million. This is getting ridiculous, America. We know it’s cold and dreary outside, and you probably want to stay away from your families for the holidays. But, we dunno, isn’t there something better to do with your time? “Avatar” is a good bit of fun, for sure, but does this film really merit these ridiculous grosses? At $350 million domestic, part of a billion dollar worldwide take (Jesus, man!), “Avatar” is unquestionably the people’s choice. But maybe you should read a book or something. Have sex with your significant other. But wear a condom, lest “Avatar” become a $2 billion movie.
“Sherlock Holmes,” last week’s bridesmaid, wasn’t so lucky. Because of the holidays and limited new releases, “Holmes” didn’t take the expected 50% drop, but it still lost quite a bit of momentum behind “Avatar.” After ten days, “Holmes” will have guessed up a $140 million total, though word-of-mouth suggests $200 will be a challenge. Still, a success, and after a declining stock, producer Joel Silver lives to fight another day. Right behind was “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel,” which is breathing down the detective’s neck with $37 million and a ridiculous $158 million total. It’s January, so these three juggernauts will likely continue to run all over the competition, and “Squeakuel” could still be standing by the time we get into March.
Predictably, “It’s Complicated” played strongly in its second weekend, producing an “Avatar”-like hold to stay in the #4 spot. It’s not in the same air of the top three blockbusters, but it doesn’t need to be, and a few more weekends of solid legs could easily get the film to $100. The question is, does international bring the heat here? “Mamma Mia” made $465 million outside of America, so foreigners do seem to like Meryl Streep, but are they going to like her looking at Alec Baldwin’s cock and smoking weed with Steve Martin? Oh man, someone just typed that sentence, and it was US.
The rest of the lineup stayed the same save for the stumbling of the Weinsteins’ “Nine,” which appears to be a huge flop for the studio. They spent expecting “Chicago” numbers, but the plot of the film is inside baseball, and Daniel Day-Lewis could only get “There Will Be Blood” to $40 million domestic (apparently you were busy seeing “Meet The Spartans” and “Untraceable”). People have been proposing gloom-and-doom for the studio for awhile, but they have hopes for this weekend’s “Youth In Revolt.” Are these guys running on fumes or is at business as usual at the Weinstein Company? Depends on who you ask, we suppose.
In limited release, the Bollywood film “3 Idiots” broke through with a surprising $1.5 million, coming close to many more high profile American releases, though Box Office Mojo hasn’t reported the numbers for the two-week-old release, which would have placed it 12th on the weekend above “Brothers.” Sure “Brothers” is closing in on $30 million at the end of its run, a good showing for a wartime film with such a topic, but let’s give “3 Idiots” (which might be interesting or terrible – we won’t pretend to champion the content of the film itself) a bit of credit, guys.
In other limited releases, all films generally saw an uptick in business from last weekend, including “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” which again had the week’s best per-screen average at $32k per. In four theaters, the film pulled in $131k, which is significantly less than the $215k pulled in by thirteen-week-old “Couples Retreat” (which had far more screens, in fairness) which certainly detracts from those who felt the success of “The Dark Knight” was due to the performance of a dead celebrity. Both films had stronger numbers than the week’s only real significant debut, “The White Ribbon,” which pulled in over $61k on only three screens, still impressive, but we are worse as a society when the new Michael Haneke film is less-attended than the ten-week-old “Boondock Saints II” (again, more screens, but facts are facts). The message behind all this? 2010 begins with people still favoring generic garbage over what we have to believe is a now-dead “counterculture” that didn’t stand a chance from a socially-conservative attitude upswing post-9/11. Also, the sky is blue. Make a New Year’s Resolution, and support your local indie theater, because you sure as fuck didn’t last year.
1. Avatar – $68.3 million ($352 mil.)
2. Sherlock Holmes – $38.4 million ($141 mil.)
3. Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Reaping – $36.6 million ($157 mil.)
4. It’s Complicated – $18.7 million ($59 mil.)
5. The Blind Side – $12.7 million ($209 mil. – not a misprint)
6. Up In The Air – $11.4 million ($45 mil.)
7. The Princess And The Frog – $10 million ($86 mil.)
8. Did You Hear About The Morgans? – $5.2 million ($26 mil.)
9. Nine – $4.3 million ($14 mil.)
10. Invictus – $4.1 million ($31 mil.)