Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried in Dear John
After seven weeks, Avatar's reign at the box office may finally be over: an estimated $6.2 million on Friday vs. $13.8 million for the tearjerker Dear John on Day One, according to figures found at Box Office Mojo. Avatar had a small but not insignificant 16.7 percent drop from the previous Friday; even if the film rallies on Saturday — as it surely will — Avatar should end the weekend with at most $23-27 million. Outstanding for a movie on its eighth weekend — but it'll land James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi adventure in second place nevertheless. Twelve years ago, Titanic remained on top for a total of 15 weekends.
Starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum, Lasse Hallström's Dear John chronicles the long-distance affair between two star-crossed lovers. Reviews have generally been anything but positive, but audiences apparently don't care — at least not yet.
On Day One, the John Travolta-Jonathan Rhys Meyers vehicle From Paris with Love earned $3 million. Following in fourth place was Mel Gibson’s revenge thriller Edge of Darkness, with earnings of $2.315 million, a 58.7 percent drop from the previous Friday. Total to date: $24.4m. At #5, the Kristen Bell-Josh Duhamel romantic comedy When in Rome, earned 2 million, a 54 percent drop from last week. Total to date: $17.39m.
Dwayne Johnson’s fantasy comedy Tooth Fairy was #6 with $1.65m, followed by Denzel Washington’s post-apocalyptic drama The Book of Eli with $1.51m. Jeff Bridges‘ Crazy Heart, now playing at 813 theaters, was #8 with $1.075m, a solid $1,313 per screen average. Legion was next with $1.06m.
Rounding out the top twelve were Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes ($785K), Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side ($770K), and Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones ($735K).
On Friday, the only movie one could say has benefited from the Oscar nominations hype was Crazy Heart, which earned nods for Bridges, supporting actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, and the song "The Weary Kind." The other nominees among the top fifteen — Avatar, The Blind Side, Up in the Air, The Lovely Bones, Sherlock Holmes — all made less money than last Friday.
Photo: Dear John (Scott Garfield / Dear John, LLC)