Cupid Rules the Day at the Box Office

The star-studded Valentine’s Day is the box office champ this weekend, besting Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and The Wolfman by $20 million, the latter two finishing neck-and-neck with $31 and $30 million respectively. The top five was rounded out by the strong-as-ever Avatar ($22 million) and the one-and-done Dear John ($15 million).

Now the question is will next week’s lone release, Shutter Island, take over the top spot? I’m going to say no. As of today, I’d say next weekend finishes like this:

• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Shutter Island
• Avatar
• Valentine’s Day
• The Wolfman

Agree? Disagree? While I’m pining for Shutter Island, I just don’t see a dark, brooding Martin Scorsese movie coming in as the champ next weekend.

WTF? Avatar Falls to Dear John!

Avatar’s seven week reign as the box office champ ended this weekend and it wasn’t John Travolta and From Paris with Love that kicked the Na’vi in the groin. No, it was Dear John, the movie starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, which is based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. Yes, the movie that’s currently boasting a 29 percent fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com.  Dear John took first place with an estimated $32.4 million and Avatar was next in line with $23.6 million. From Paris with Love was a distant third with a paltry $8.1 million and will most likely be forgotten come next weekend.  One can only pray that Dear John will suffer the same.

Despite Avatar’s drop, it has made $630 million in eight weeks. If it wins the best picture Oscar on March 7^th, you know the studio is going to milk every drop and get as much mileage from that victory as possible. I’ve shown that I suck at predicting the box office (since I was the one who said Avatar wouldn’t break the global or domestic box office grip of Titanic), but I have a feeling Avatar will settle in the record books somewhere near $695 million.