Ethan Hawke, Claudia Karvan, Willem Dafoe in Daybreakers (Ben Rothstein / Lionsgate)
James Cameron's Avatar grossed an estimated $48.5 million this weekend. But what about the three major new releases?
According to Box Office Mojo figures, only Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig's vampire flick Daybreakers ($15 million, at #2), starring Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, fared well. Anand Tucker's romantic comedy Leap Year ($9.1m, at #6), with Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, and Miguel Arteta's Youth in Revolt ($2.7m, #9), with Michael Cera, both performed more or less according to what was expected — the problem is that what was expected wasn't much.
Daybreakers was the only one with an okay per-screen average ($5,945). Neither Leap Year nor Youth Revolt managed to reach $4,000 per screen on their opening weekend. The former averaged $3,650, the latter $3,737.
The third and fourth spots on the top 12 box-office list went to holdovers Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, with $16.6m, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, with $16.3m. Directed by Nancy Meyers, the Meryl Streep-Alec Baldwin-Steve Martin romantic comedy It's Complicated landed in fifth, with an excellent $11m (total $76.3m.)
The Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart-Taylor Lautner drama The Twilight Saga: New Moon, surprisingly remains among the top 12 hits at the domestic box office. New Moon earned nearly $1.7m (total $290.7m).