James Cameron’s Avatar opened to a huge weekend, The motion capture-and-live action opened in 106 international territories, and earned $73 million domestically and $159.2 million in foreign territories for a worldwide debut totaling $232.2 million. The other major new release was Did You Hear About the Morgans which earned only $7 million.
Large snow storms on the east coast are blamed for some of the lower than expected numbers.
Avatar earned $27 million on Friday, including $3.5 million in boxoffice from more than 2,000 mostly 3D midnight performances. Saturday dropped to $25.7 million and Fox penciled it a $20.3 million estimate for Sunday, both numbers hurt by the snow.
The weekend was the second largest opening in December history, The biggest-ever December opening was with 2007’s “I Am Legend” at $77.2 million.
Full Listing:
1. Avatar – $73,000,000 (total $73,000,000)
2. The Princess and the Frog – $12,224,000 (total $44,756,000)
3. The Blind Side – $10,030,000 (total $164,734,000)
4. Did You Hear About the Morgans? – $7,000,000 (total $7,000,000)
5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon – $4,370,000 (total $274,561,000)
6. Invictus – $4,170,000 (total $15,845,000)
7. A Christmas Carol (2009) – $3,419,000 (total $130,789,000)
8. Up in the Air – $3,100,000 (total $8,106,000)
9. Brothers – $2,630,000 (total $22,091,000)
10. Old Dogs – $2,289,000 (total $43,574,000)
credit: Box Office Mojo , Hollywood Reporter
