TheChez.net

by ssjrem

Big surprise here. Avatar’s on top again. Truth be told, I find myself almost tired of talking about it, but that’s not to say I’m not still utterly amazed at its run. Aside from what will soon be the biggest movie of all time (arguably) the weekend was actually fairly strong, especially for early January. Let’s dive in!

Avatar

Avatar passed out The Dark Knight this weekend and it still shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. The legs on this picture are simply astounding. I’ve already seen it twice, but I kind of want to go for a third time. I really loved this movie, more than I probably should. Anyway, Avatar fell just 16% down to 36 million. These are some of the best legs we’ve seen this decade. And for a film on the scale of Avatar, it’s downright unheard of. With a total now of 553 million, Avatar still has a lot of life left. If it holds like this again, it’ll make about 25 million next weekend, 18-20 the weekend after and then it should receive a nice healthy boost on President’s weekend and could make about 24 or so. Add in weekday grosses and it’s up around 640 million. So 700 million is definitely a possibility. That’s a number I never thought would be achieved. Leave it to James Cameron.

Much as Avatar is closing in on Titanic on the domestic front, the worldwide total has also climbed to insane heights. It’s up to 1.75 billion, less than a hundred million off Titanic. I’ll confess that I’m not as up on overseas box office trends as I am on the domestic front, but the way it seems now, Avatar is pretty much a lock for getting over two billion. I long thought Titanic’s worldwide total was unreachable, but here we are, Avatar a mere few weeks away from taking it down. Avatar might finally surrender the top spot to Mel Gibson next weekend, but I’ll be discussing it for a long time to come.

Legion

So, let me get this straight, America. We have Daybreakers, a movie with an interesting concept, an intriguing, atmospheric trailer. And then we have Legion, a film with the dumbest fucking trailer ever. And yet Legion opens to more? I can’t speak for the quality of both of the actual films themselves, as I haven’t seen Legion (and I have no intention to), but going from trailers alone, I don’t understand how Legion could possibly have attracted a bigger audience on opening weekend. Oh wait, Americans are fucking retarded. I forgot. Look at that fucking picture I have there! Are you serious? Like, really? Legion made a solid 18 million. It’s got 23% at RT. Daybreakers fell about 66% or so in its second weekend. Let’s see if Legion can top that.

Last week’s runner up, The Book of Eli, gets pushed to third by another movie with religious themes. It fell 48% to 17 million. With 62 million in the bank so far, Eli could still see it’s way to 100 million.

The Tooth Fairy: 14.5 million. Don’t care.

Peter Jackson’s gamble The Lovely Bones takes a hard hit, down 48% to 8.8 million. 32 million against a budget of 65 million isn’t so good. Well, never every movie is going to be a Lord of the Rings.

Sherlock Holmes stabilizes this weekend and for the first time, defeats Alvin. Thank you, America. Down 28% to 7.1 million, Sherlock’s up to 192 million. I’m thinking about 215 to 220 or so, definitely more than enough to warrant a sequel.

Extraordinary Measures: 7 million. Don’t really care that much. I’ll confess that I don’t even know what this movie’s about. My apologies.

The “Squeakquel” fell 44% to 6.5 million and seems to be running out of steam. However, it did pass 200 million. Now at 204, it should do about 225 or so. I would love to see Sherlock ultimately beat it, though.

It’s Complicated: 6.2 million, down 24%. 98.7 million total. I have said it every single week and this will probably be my last opportunity so let me say it one last time. THIS MOVIE IS FUCKED UP.

Wow, The Spy Next Door manages to spend a second weekend in the top ten. It fell 52% down to 4.8 million. It’s at 18 million total, which considering the circumstances, isn’t half bad.

I feel as though I should just give a send off to The Blind Side. It finally fell out of the top ten this weekend after nearly two weeks. It’s still holding well, down just 18%. With it’s total up to 234 million, I still think it could hit 250 million. Stunning, really.

So, yep, Avatar was number one again. It’s insane to stay on top for six consecutive weeks and it could potentially stay on top next weekend two. If it falls about 25%, it’ll stay make about 26 million, a total that nothing else might be able to hit next weekend. So, let’s see what’s going to try to bring it down.

Edge of Darkness: Essentially, Mel Gibson’s version of Taken. Mel’s no Liam Neeson, but I nonetheless think EOD should be thoroughly entertaining. Taken opened to 24 million, so EOD could open 20-25 million. It could be mighty close with Avatar next weekend.

When in Rome: Despite my intense love for Kristen Bell, I don’t see this making much of a dent. The trailer isn’t funny at all and the concept is kind of weird. Then again, as I look at recent releases, women and girls haven’t really had a movie to see in a good long while, so maybe they’d really come out for this. And if it could hold on for two weeks, When in Rome could definitely benefit from Valentine’s Day. Or it could just flop horribly. I’m just going to say about 12 million. We’ll see. I’m out.