Avatar Continues to Demolish Weekend Box Office

Box office totals won’t be confirmed until Monday, but as of right now Avatar again crushed its competition, hauling in $48.5 million dollars over the weekend, moving James Cameron’s sci-fi epic into seventh place on the all-time highest grossing list (domestic box office, not adjusted for inflation).  Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel were a distant second and third with $16,610,000 and $16,300,000 respectively. Daybreakers and It’s Complicated rounded out the top five with $15 and $11 million.

Now the question is – how far can Avatar climb? Even if it’s weekend gross dropped by 50% next week, it still will leapfrog Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, E.T. and Shrek 2 to become the fourth highest grossing domestic movie of all time. It should also pass Star Wars ($460,998,007) to take control of the third spot on the aforementioned list; however, from there Avatar’s financial future becomes murky. The Dark Knight ($533,345,358), in my opinion, is well within reach, but I think Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic, will remain number one, as $600,788,188 million is quite the haul.

For our international friends, Avatar is now the second highest grossing worldwide release in history, second only to Titanic. To pass the 1997 behemoth, Avatar would need to pull in another $512 million. Only four words for that possibility: Not. Going. To. Happen.

Avatar Continues to Spank Booty at the Box Office

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If weekend estimates are accurate, Avatar is the box office champ for the third consecutive week, raking in an impressive post-holiday $68 million in domestic ticket sales. That puts its three week haul at $352 million and in 15th place on the highest grossing movies list. Now the “will it beat out The Dark Knight and Titanic” money watch will begin in earnest. It would be interesting if it took 12 years and another James Cameron film to best Titanic’s longstanding grip as the all-time box office champ. If you ask me, even though reviews are generally positive, I think word-of-mouth and repeat viewings have and will be key to Avatar’s success.

Rounding out the top five were Sherlock Holmes ($38M), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It’s Complicated ($36M), ($18M) and The Blind Side ($12M). One has to wonder if the continued success of The Blind Side will help Sandra Bullock’s Oscar chances, and I think anyone who doesn’t think Avatar won’t be one of the best picture nominees is seriously smoking the ganja. I haven’t seen Alvin and the Chipmunks (thank the Lord), but I have seen Sherlock Holmes and that film lost its luster hardcore after a second viewing. That’s one I won’t be purchasing on Blu-ray; I’m not that big of a hi-def slut.

The New Moon Juggernaut Keeps Rolling

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the New Moon train is rolling at full steam the last two weeks and, by all accounts, shouldn’t slip from the top spot until possibly December 11, when Disney’s The Princess and The Frog opens wide. For now, The Twilight Saga: New Moon has earned at hearty $230,947,696 domestically, making it the sixth highest grossing movie of 2009.

Back to The Princess and The Frog – if early reviews are any indication, then Disney’s first classically animated film (2D) since 2004’s Home on the Range is assuredly going to boot Twilight down to number two. As it stands today, The Princess and The Frog is at 82 percent on RottenTomatoes.com.

Still, it’s hard to see what else, before Avatar (December 18), Sherlock Holmes (December 25) and Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (December 25) could possibly boot Edward and Bella from the top five money-earners at the box office. That would make a bounteous six week run for the second film in the Twilight Saga and, I predict, place the film behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the second highest grossing movie of 2009.

The Holiday Nine

The Holidays are here, meaning studios will trot out their best in an effort to garner Oscar attention as close to Oscar time as possible. It also means we’ll be treated to some “family friendly” pap, total misses and the stuff that’s somewhere in between. Here’s our first-impression on the upcoming season’s Must-See, Maybe’s and Must-Misses, all spiffed up and scrubbed by way of our Holiday Nine.

Must – See

Avatar (December 18) -Dan

If you’ve been following AATM or have been to the movies lately, you’ve probably–finally–heard of the otherworldly Dances With Wolves meets robots, monsters and aliens sci-fi fantasy Avatar. Promised to be the cinematic game-changer of the new century, Avatar is James Cameron’s return to the ridiculously budgeted (rumored to cost over $500 million), geeky fun he kicked to the curb after Titanic when he decided to go swimming for a decade. Initially, public perception for Avatar was non-existent outside the geek community, but thanks to some expositionary trailers and a promise of a 3D-immersive world experience, Avatar has morphed into the go-to movie of the season. Cameron’s yet to direct a film most people haven’t enjoyed from start to finish and with Avatar’s promise of xeno-zoology and their perforation exchange with space marines thrown in for good measure,  Avatar gets a full pass on cinematic event spectacle alone.

The Road (November 25) – Andy

The Road is a magnificent novel about a father and son traveling through a ruined and savage post-apocalyptic United States. Written by Cormac McCarthy, the book is one of my all-time favorites and it whipped me through a myriad of emotions – hope, sadness, fear, anger and happiness. It’s more a story of love and hope than it is an end-of-the-world tale. If director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and writer Joe Penhall can successfully translate McCarthy’s haunting prose to the big screen, then the movie should be equally emotional. It stars Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Charlize Theron (In the Valley of Elah), Robert Duvall (We Own the Night), Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

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Trailer Tuesday (Dan’s Pick): Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

All I can say is this: I “chip” you not.

Oh, and this:

The cutesy marketing braintrust that came up with these puntastic title needs to be sent to a lifeboat adrift in the Pacific so they can spread their stinky brand of cutesy cheer all over the face of a rabid shark.

Still, Merry Christmas. Early.