Weekend Box Office Results 1/15-1/17

It was the fifth straight weekend at the top of the box office for Avatar but The Book of Eli and The Lovely Bones performed well and slightly above expectations.

Avatar is quickly approaching the record held by Titanic of the highest grossing movie of all time. It is already over $1.6 billion worldwide and at this pace could surpass Titanic in the next couple weeks. No one seriously contemplated this happening before Avatar came out and anyone would’ve been laughed at suggesting it could achieve such a feat in just two months.

Breaking the record for the most money made in a fifth weekend of release (previously held by Titanic) Avatar pulled $41.3 million and the movie is now less than $9 million away from hitting $500 million domestically. It will probably pass over that mark on Wednesday making it just the third movie ever to do so and the fastest to do so.

In second place it was a very good start for The Book of Eli which made $31.6 million. That makes it the second biggest opening in Denzel Washington’s career behind just American Gangster. Reviews were mixed but audience reaction has been trending positive. It is difficult to tell how well it will hold in upcoming weeks but it doesn’t look like the type that will have a huge fall next weekend.

While The Lovely Bones didn’t turn out to be the awards contender many expected before it came out it did really well in its first weekend of wide release. After showing in just three theaters for the last month the Peter Jackson film made $17 million. While the reviews haven’t been great it has been getting better response from moviegoers with an A- rating on Yahoo Movies. Fans of the novel likely accounted for a large portion of the business so it may not hold up as well in coming weeks without the award recognition unless word of mouth turns out to be strong.

With a more disappointing opening of $9.7 million was The Spy Next Door. The Jackie Chan movie didn’t perform poorly due to the terrible reviews (Alvin and the Chipmunks continues to roll despite that) but there was just no one the movie really appealed to. It was directed at the family crowd but offered a completely recycled plot and Chan isn’t a draw at the box office on his own.

1- Avatar $41.4 ($491.8)
2- The Book of Eli $31.6 (OPEN)
3- The Lovely Bones $17.1 ($17.6)
4- Alvin and the Chipmunks $11.5 ($192.6)
5- Sherlock Holmes $9.8 ($180.0)
6- The Spy Next Door $9.7 (OPEN)
7- It’s Complicated $7.7 ($88.2)
8- Leap Year $5.8 ($17.5)
9- The Blind Side $5.6 ($226.8)
10- Up in the Air $5.5 ($62.8)