Denzel Washington’s The Book of Eli couldn’t hold its early Friday lead, dropping into second place after Saturday’s box office results filtered in. Estimates for the weekend put Avatar back on top for the fifth week in a row with a 3-day take of $41.3 million, off only 18% from last weekend. The film’s domestic take now stands at $491 million. Eli, from The Hughes Bros., took the number two spot with $31.6 million, giving the apocalyptic drama a healthy debut and a welcome return for the directing team. Paramount’s decision to delay its wide release of The Lovely Bones to this weekend seems to be paying off. The film connected with teenage girls as the marketing gurus had predicted and earned $17.1 million for a respectable third place finish. Position four went to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel which grossed another $11.5 million, putting its total domestic gross at $192.6 million. Sherlock Holmes nabbed the fifth spot with $9.8 million, putting its total at $180 million. The full Martin Luther King holiday report will be filed here tomorrow. Check back then.
Jan 17
2010
02:20 PM ET
'Avatar' regains lead; wins weekend for fifth time in a row
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C’mon EW… I read about the weekend estimates 3 hours ago on 4 other sites! Keep up people!!
Avatar will end it’s 6 week rung at No. 1 in 2 weeks with Edge of Darkness…
Welcome Back R-rated, Asskicking Mel Gibson!
Pretty excited for the return of “R-rated, Asskicking Mel Gibson” as well. The movie itself isn’t really exciting me too much, so it was a great choice to get Gibson in that role.
What is Gibson blaming Jewish people for this time?
Wow. That was ignorant
Who is ignorant of what? Are you saying Gibson is ignorant? Or are you saying Gideon’s comment is ignorant? Because if it’s the latter, your comment makes sense only if you are ignorant of Gibson’s personal beliefs. Ironic, eh?
Gibson is a Holocaust denier, I’ll never watch another of the scumbag’ movies.
wait wait wait. What’s a Halocaust?
Ya right!!! Mel Gibson is so over…like 10 years ago!!…
Signs wasn’t 10 years ago.
I LOVE ME SOME ASS KICKING MEL GIBSON AND I LOVE ME SOME CAP LOCKS
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
@Matt1 – I believe you mean “run,” not “rung.” And ew.com can post this information pretty much whenever they want. Read about it on other sites beforehand. That’s fine.
Wow Matt1, you actually READ 5 different sites’ movie totals? Is reading the same info over and over and over that much of a thrill for you? EW is fairly up to date with its reports, so if you already read it elsewhere, why not go out and do something in REAL LIFE life read, jog, spend time with people….
Really? That movie looks terrible in the commericials. It’s just Mel Gibson growling.
It’s looks like a remake of Taken starring a very old looking Mel Gibson. But really who can take Mel Gibson seriously. He is this great Christian who leaves his wife and has a baby with a much, much, much younger woman. He’s just another hypocrite.
What the heck does Christianity have to do with him leaving his wife? Totally irrelevant.
I highly doubt an R-rated movie is going to knock Avatar off the number 1 slot, considering it has a rating which allows more people to see it (and the ‘perks’ of 3D/Imax to get more per ticket). If anything to movie might help Avatar as the kids are shipped off the 3D land while the parents go see Gibson. If a PG-13 or so film in Imax 3D drops … maybe. The benefit of being outside of the blockbuster season is that Avatar doesn’t have real competition. The prestige Oscar bait movies will come out now … which won’t get great numbers until after the Oscars probably.
I think Avatar will be knocked out by “The Wolfman” for the no 1 spot.
Hahaha yea thats pretty hilarious… a mel gibson movie like this isn’t even gonna be noticed by the movie going crowd… no movie is probably till Alice in Wonderland. Esp when Avatar gets nominated for oscars… people will be going around for a 2nd round.
Avatar was great! The special effects were very impressive!!!! But the volyme was way to high where I saw it, too bad! I just wanted to leave….
$1.6 Billion worldwide. Wow.
Domestic: $491,767,000 30.7%
+ Foreign: $1,110,401,000 69.3%
= Worldwide: $1,602,168,000
Matt why dont you shut up about that Edge of Darkness crap. I saw the preview and its pathetic looking. I am giving it a 12 Mil debut and Avatar will be No. 1 for at least another month. You are just stupid Matt.
No, Edge of Darkness will do well. Prolly 20-25 million. I don’t know if that will be enough to knock Avatar off, but it will be close.
I love how people like jon are so quick to deem someone “stupid” for stating an opinion. I loved Avatar, hate Twilight. But I’d never call the Twilight fans “stupid”. Everybody has their own tastes.
Good job grabbing enough attention to get someone to comment on your post though buddy.
Chill jon. They are just movies.
I’m glad Avatar is still #1, the amount of time that movie took to make makes it deserve it. However, I think it will peak out around week 9
I thought The Book of Eli would give Avatar a bit tougher competition. Guess I was wrong, but I’m not complaining.
If you want to find out more about Avatar, check out navihometree.com!
People are tired of the apocolypse. Too many same types of movies on this dreary topic.
Agree completely, AcaseofGeo. Am done with End of The World films and grateful for uplifting films like The Blind Side or amazing, fun films like Avatar. The world is hard enough as it is without being pounded on the head with doom & gloom.
It will easily top next weekend with about 32 million, and probably the week after that with 23 million (let’s face it mel isn’t going to top that you guys are overestimating how much people care), however i think after that any movie can top it, it’s not going to be impossible to top a movie with an 18 million weekend gross. 600 million here we come. Not to mention it’s going to pass Titanics worldwide gross next weekend. What an amazing feat, truly deserved.
i read that EW gave Book of Eli a ‘D’. i disagree with that. I thought the movie was really good
the movie sucked….going back to see AVATAR for a 4th time this eve….
It’s a shame The Lovely Bones didn’t turn out to be a better film, it seems that if there aren’t giant gorillas or orcs in the script, Peter Jackson doesn’t know what to do with it.
Do people on here know that Mel Gibson is not the same Mel Gibson when he had star power? I dont get it. He is a great director but as an actor he is done now. This movie Edge of Darkness will open at $12 mil and Matt will still look stupid.
When is Legion opening? I wonder if that movie will be the one that finally knocks Avatar from its perch.
saw it at a preview….very crappy movie…so cheesy special effects too!!!
The reason Avatar keeps winning the box office is because there are too many nerds out there who aren’t able to get dates. Get a life, people!
Hahahaha
I did ask her out for a date…and she wants to see AVATAR tonight!!!
@ron: that’s funny, your mum couldn’t shut up about the movie… even when she was giving head
LMAO… high-larry-us
Got a date to see it too!!!! 7th time! I’m proud to be an Avatard!
That comes after the movie….just call it a big payoff!!!
Excuse me but I went to see it with my boyfriend for the third time and I am not a nerd.
EW GIVE THE BOOK ELI GRADE D. THAT IS IRRATIONAL. ELI IS AN OF THE BEST MOVIES THAT I HAVE WATCHED LATELY
You think something is ‘irrational’ because the opinion differs from your own?
I thought Love Bones was fantastic. Gorillas not needed.
I think my love bone is fantastic, too.
Avatar has that thing that Titanic had, it is a must see for it’s technical innovation. It’s bringing people to the theater who normally wouldn’t go. I wouldn’t count on some mediocre star vehicle by an aging star to knock it off it’s perch.
The next big megahit will most likely be Clash of the Titans.
very excited for clash of the titans!
OMG! I can’t wait to see Clash of the Titans! That guy from Avatar is so hot and he’s in Clash of the Titans!!!
Finally saw Avatar this weekend. Amazing graphics and 3D…average movie though. Not sure how much I wouldve liked it without the 3D effect. It was 13 bucks for a ticket but I didn’t feel jipped.
I saw it this weekend too and thought the same thing. Without the 3D effects, it’s just a rehashed storyline on an alien planet.
That was why the director had waited for 12 years to make it. It was in its design, and it worked!