Weekend Box Office Results 1/22-1/24
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As expected Avatar easily cruised to its six straight weekend win but one of the new movies beat expectations and performed very well. Last week that was The Book of Eli and this week it was Legion. The two other new entries this weekend had disappointing starts.
Avatar was able to make another $36 million which pushed it past The Dark Knight for the second highest grossing movie domestically ever trailing only Titanic. It has now totaled over $550 million. Worldwide though Avatar is expected to pass Titanic within the next few days to become the biggest movie of all-time. Astounding feat not only in that most never thought it would be possible but that it would do so in just over a month.
It was a very good opening for the supernatural thriller Legion which pulled in $18.2 million. The movie was budgeted at a low $25 million making this a relative hit. It did well despite the direct competition from The Book of Eli and poor reviews. Apocalyptic and biblical themed films have been doing well at the box office for some time now.
Even though everyone seemed to agree that The Tooth Fairy looked terrible it still seemed destined to draw an audience close to other family targeted films led by Dwayne Johnson. But the $14.5 million over the weekend shows that even the audience that has made the two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies smash hits recognized this one wasn’t worth their time. It should become profitable however once it hits DVD.
Extraordinary Measures had the look and marketing of a TV movie as it was distributed by CBS Films, their first major motion picture launch. It was only able to make $7 million this weekend and seems to be on a quick path to DVD. The reviews needed to be stronger for a drama such as this even with two big stars headlining in Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford.
1- Avatar $36.0 ($552.8)
2- Legion $18.2 (OPEN)
3- The Book of Eli $17.0 ($62.0)
4- The Tooth Fairy $14.5 (OPEN)
5- The Lovely Bones $8.8 ($31.6)
6- Sherlock Holmes $7.1 ($191.6)
7- Extraordinary Measures $7.0 (OPEN)
8- Chipmunks Squeakuel $6.5 ($204.2)
9- It’s Complicated $6.2 ($98.6)
10- The Spy Next Door $4.7 ($18.7)