Avatar‘s more family-friendly rating and the fact it only has to make up $1.3 million on The Book of Eli should mean we are looking at a fifth weekend in a row for Avatar. I guess the big question now is whether or not Avatar can withstand Extraordinary Measures, Legion and The Tooth Fairy next weekend for a sixth weekend in a row.
With what looks to be a fifth weekend in a row for the sci-fi feature means Avatar is the first film since The Sixth Sense in 1999 to take five weekends straight, but should it manage to win next weekend it will be the first time a film has achieved that feat since Cameron’s last film, Titanic took 15 weekends straight back in the 1997-98 frame. Whether you are a box-office guru or not, you have got to be impressed with that. Hell, people should rally together to go see it just to make it happen.
As for the rest of Friday’s estimates, The Lovely Bones finally expanded and managed $5.7 million from 2,563 theaters and should pull about $16 million for the weekend. Lionsgate’s new release The Spy Next Door managed a meager $2.4 million tying with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel for the fifth slot, which I’m assuming they’ll take since they did little more than online advertising for the flick. However, Lionsgate’s Daybreakers, which opened in the #4 slot last weekend with $15.1 million is suffering this weekend with only $1.4 million on Friday and will likely miss the top ten completely. Not too impressive.
However, the same could be said for the Weinstein Co.’s Youth in Revolt, a film that deserved much better than it got and after a $6.9 million opening weekend earned only $950,000 on Friday and will now struggle to make $2.5 million for the three-day and won’t be seen in the top ten or likely heard from again. Like the graphic says, “Sad panda.”
Variety brings us the following Friday estimates, stay tuned as Laremy will be here Sunday morning with the three-day results.
- The Book of Eli – $11.7 million
- Avatar – $10.4 million
- The Lovely Bones – $5.7 million
- Sherlock Holmes – $2.8 million
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel – $2.4 million
- The Spy Next Door – $2.4 million
