Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang in Avatar (WETA / 20th Century Fox) (top); Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes (Alex Bailey / Warner Bros.) (bottom)
After falling behind Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day, Avatar ended up victorious at the Christmas weekend box office. James Cameron's sci-fi spectacle grossed $75 million throughout what turned out to be the most successful weekend ever — $264.1 million — at the domestic box office (not counting inflation).
According to the Box Office Mojo chart, the previous record-holder was the July 18-20 weekend — $253.5m — when The Dark Knight led the pack with $158.4m. Now in third place is the Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart-Taylor Lautner vampire-werewolf-human triangle The Twilight Saga: New Moon opening weekend (Nov. 20-22), when the second Twilight installment brought in $142.8m, helping the weekend total reach $250m.
For the record, the runners-up were the weekends topped by two Johnny Depp vehicles: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in, respectively, July 2006 and May 2007.
Back to Avatar: The film lost only 3 percent from its previous weekend earnings, something that is pretty remarkable. Ten days after its launch, Avatar has earned $212.3 in North America. It's now officially the top December grosser ever, having edged out Will Smith's I Am Legend (once again, not counting inflation and higher ticket prices for the 3D film).
Also helping fuel the box-office craze were Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes, with $65.4m, and kiddie flick Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, with $50.2m. Meryl Streep came in fourth with a pretty strong $22.5m for It's Complicated.
People said that Avatar is a really good movie. I definitely need to see it. Thank you for sharing such an interesting and informative article. – Manila