May 26, 2012

Avatar Breaks the Box Officev

by Jennifer M. Wood | Published December 28, 2009

Just days after news broke that, for the first time ever, the domestic box office take had crossed the $10 billion mark, the one-two punch of James Cameron’s Avatar and Guy Ritchie’s highly anticipated Sherlock Holmes have combined to create the biggest single weekend at the box office, bringing in more than $270 million.

James Cameron’s groundbreaking Avatar held on to the top position, with $75 million in receipts; debuting on Christmas Day, Sherlock Holmes—starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law—earned an impressive $65,380,000 over the holiday weekend. Family-friendly Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel rounded out the top three at just over $50 million.

It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, and critical darling Up in the Air, starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick, rounded out the top five with $22 million and $11,755,00, respectively.

Two new critically-acclaimed films will enter the box office mix this weekend—Michael Haneke’s award-winning The White Ribbon and Jodie Markell’s The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond—but with both in limited release, it looks as if Cameron will remain king of the world.

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Comment by Video SEO on 12/29/09 at 8:27 pm: The fact that the Christmas holidays fell on a weekend made helped. It still is a great result and clearly shows that movies are far from dead!