tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Another week, another round of Avatar box office news.  With a grip on almost every other box office record to date, Avatar ($630.1M) finally did what was once thought impossible as it passed Titanic ($600.8M) to take the top spot on the all-time domestic box office list.  But just as quickly as Avatar crushed the last standing major record in its path it was knocked from the top spot by the unlikeliest of movies, Dear John ($32.4M).

I was never under the impression that Avatar would be number one forever, but I expected it to last at least one more week until The Wolfman knocked it off.  Now the question for Avatar is how much more money will it make?  A good chunk of its box office revenue has come from 3D screens and Alice in Wonderland looks to take the majority of them when the movie comes out March 5.  Fox has every box office record that matters so I don’t expect them to push this next month with a host of other 3D releases coming out.

Now that Avatar fever is waning, the box office can look to the rest of the field for excitement.  This weekend looks a little packed with The Wolfman, Valentine’s Day, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief.  The Wolfman was supposed to come out last February and was pushed back twice so it will be interesting to see how it does.  Valentine’s Day took the route of bringing in about two dozen actors and actresses with box office appeal and cramming them into one movie.  So the fact that it should suck will have no bearing on its earnings this week.  Don’t expect Avatar to roll over either.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets close to $700 million domestically by the time it is all said and done.  Especially if it wins Best Picture at next months Oscar's.

Weekend Box Office: February 5-7, 2010 (estimated)

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Total Gross
1	Dear John	$32,400,000	NEW
2	Avatar	$23,600,000	$630,100,000
3	From Paris with Love	$8,100,000	NEW
4	Edge of Darkness	$7,000,000	$29,100,000
5	The Tooth Fairy	$6,500,000	$34,300,000

Source: Box Office Mojo