Box Office Mojo reports that James Cameron's Avatar earned another $16 million on Tuesday. The previous day, Avatar had broken the Mondays in December Record, with earnings of $16.3 million. The sci-fi adventure now has the best Tuesday in December as well. In fact, the Monday-Tuesday drop was minuscule: less than 2% for a total of $16.08 million.
True, it's Christmas week, which means that millions of people are out of work (in addition to the millions of unemployed) and so are millions of school kids and teenagers. But perhaps Avatar will have some long (and much-needed) legs, after all. Set on a distant celestial body in the 22nd century, Avatar may well be the movie of choice to forget about Planet Earth in the early 21st century.
Avatar's Tuesday gross was the second highest ever for a non-opening film and third-highest overall (not adjusted for inflation). Only Michael Bay's Transformers (which opened on a Tuesday in July 2007), with $27.8m, and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), with $20.8m, made more money. The Johnny Depp vehicle Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) comes slightly behind, with $15.7m.
Avatar's five-day domestic total now stands at $109.5 million. Worldwide, the film has earned more than $300 million.
According to Forbes.com, Exhibitor Relations expects Avatar's ticket sales to drop 28% over the holiday weekend. If so, that would still mean $55 million at the box office and the #1 spot in the charts.
Written and directed by Cameron of Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic fame, Avatar stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Laz Alonso, Stephen Lang, and Giovanni Ribisi.
Photo: Avatar (WETA / 20th Century Fox)