Box Office Review for 1/29-1/31

OK, so both Castor and I were very low on Avatar, as it’s drop of only 10% is just plain silly at this point. A movie isn’t supposed to do that in it’s 7th week and stillbe over the $30 million mark. Heck, most movies nowadays would be elated with a $30 million opening, and Avatar is doing it almost two months into its release. Avatar now sits at $595 mil domestically, and should cross the $600 mil threshold before the week is over, in which Titanic holds the record of $600.8 million. After that Avatar will pretty much hold every box office record we can imagine. How much longer does it stay in the Top 10? I mean, three big titles open up on the 12th, so it will no longer hold that crown. But it’s going to be nominated for about 7 or 8 Oscars tomorrow, so surely that will keep people flocking to see it. But looking at the upcoming releases, could it go until April while still being in the Top 10? Could be very possible. Bloody scary, but very possible nonetheless.

Don’t Miss the Jump>>

Mel Gibson’s first movie in many moons opened rather weak. Most experts were expecting at least $20 million, and possibly knocking Avatar off the champion’s chair. Things don’t look good for Edge of Darkness, only grabbing $17 million. With a budget of $80, they were hoping to get about $170-$180 in the box office to turn a profit, though this movie had “DVD hit” written all over it, so I’m sure that if they get about $130-140 million they might be alright, but even that is asking a bit much from a movie that opened with only $17 million. And I have to ask, where did they spend $80 million with this movie? How much did Mel take, $30 million?

The other movie opening this weekend was When in Rome, which opened at $12.3 million. That’s probably higher than some people thought, but still a dreadful opening for the Kristen Bell rom-com. The Tooth Fairy only dropped a surprising 28.6%, but that movie better make all it can before Percy Jackson opens on the 12th, because that entire demographic will be storming to see what appears to be the next Harry Potter series. Legion appears to be getting destroyed by word of mouth, dropping a whopping 61% to $6.8 million. It has crossed it’s budget total, so I guess that’s a good thing…

The rest of the movies were pretty much as predicted. In fact, if it wasn’t for The Rock finishing a the #4 spot, my top 10 would’ve bee in perfect order. And I have to brag about nailing The Lovely Bones square in the head. And on one final note, Crazy Heart had an astonishing week, grabbing $2.3 million in only 239 theaters, so it should crack into the Top 10 next week. Want something even crazier? That per-theater average was still only 2nd to movies having at least 10 theaters. The #1 movie? Yep, you guessed it. Avatar…

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