After two weeks of thinking it out loud I have a new number one to talk about. Now, I have to go back on my word a little bit, I was not so tired of Avatar that I wanted to talk about Dear John, but here we are. There is no way I would have guessed that this would be the movie to take the top spot. It actually makes me a little sad. Why? Well, I have not seen it and cannot speak dfinitively but I had hoped that the usurper would be a well received one, I did not expect a so-called "chick flick" to be the one to do it. It know can go into the history books alongside Lost in Space as the films to knock James Cameron's history-making efforts out of the number one slot. Going into the weekend I felt pretty sure that Avatar was going to cruise to its eighth weekend victory. There was no way I thought a Nicholas Sparks adaptation would climb so high as to knock it out of its perch. Obviously I was wrong. The romance starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried opened to tepid reviews but struck a chord with audiences, pushing it past the $32 million mark.
Coming in second place, the lowest place in its run is Avatar. On the plus side, the film has cruised past Titanic and is now the top grossing film of all time internationally and domestically. The question now that it is on top is how high will it go? Some say it could top $750 million. Unbelievable nomatter how you look at it.
Coming in a distant third place is the John Travolta action fil, From Paris with Love. I am rather surprised at how low it came in in its debut frame. The trailers made it seem a lot of fun and would seem to be a shoo in to draw a crowd. I guess I was wrong. The Pierre Morel directed feature limped past the $8 million mark and will not likely be a long term fixture in the top ten.
Move down the list a little and you will find Crazy Heart. The Oscar nominated Jeff Bridges film is finally going wide in its eighth week of release. That's right, it began its run opposite Avatar. How funny woukf it have been if this was the movie that had taken it down? All right, not really. The film is really quite good and Jeff Bridges turns in a stunning performance.
All the way down at the bottom of the list you will find Sherlock Holmes clinging to tenth place. That in and of itself is not al that notable. What is notable is that it has crossed the $200 million plateau. I am happy for it, the film is very entertaining and worth seeing.
Next weekend is Valentine's day and we get three new movies to choose from. First up is the potential franchise based on a book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Next up is the new take on The Wolfman starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt. Hopefully the long delayed movie will deliver on the solid trailers. Finally, to bring the season home is the new romantic comedy Valentine's Day, complete with a large ensemble cast that includes Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Kathy Bates, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher, Tayler Lautner, and Taylor Swift.
Three movies dropped off the list this week: The Lovely Bones (13), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (14), and It's Complicated (15).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | N | Dear John | $32,400,000 | $32,400,000 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Avatar | $23,600,000 | $630,093,000 | 8 |
| 3 | N | From Paris with Love | $8,120,000 | $8,120,000 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | Edge of Darkness | $7,005,000 | $29,097,000 | 2 |
| 5 | 4 | The Tooth Fairy | $6,500,000 | $34,333,000 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | When in Rome | $5,504,000 | $20,899,000 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | The Book of Eli | $4,835,000 | $82,163,000 | 4 |
| 8 | 14 | Crazy Heart | $3,650,000 | $11,188,000 | 8 |
| 9 | 6 | Legion | $3,400,000 | $34,678,000 | 3 |
| 10 | 8 | Sherlock Holmes | $2,630,000 | $201,579,000 | 7 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
Not so good this week. It was bound to happen. Dear John winning the weekend is a sign. I am not sure what I am going to do next week or the week after that. I suppose I will be able to muddle through until blockbuster season starts and predictions get a little easier to make. This week was just an oddity that I did not see coming. Granted, with the way Avatar has been going, I am not sure anyone saw this coming.
Here is how the field matched up:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 2 | 1 | Avatar | $23,600,000 | $26 million |
| 3 | 2 | From Paris with Love | $8,120,000 | $17 million |
| 1 | 3 | Dear John | $32,400,000 | $14 million |
| 4 | 4 | Edge of Darkness | $7,005,000 | $9 million |
| 6 | 5 | When in Rome | $5,504,000 | $7 million |
| 5 | 6 | The Tooth Fairy | $6,500,000 | $5 million |
| 7 | 7 | The Book of Eli | $4,835,000 | $4.5 million |
| 8 | 8 | Crazy Heart | $3,650,000 | $4 million |
| 13 | 9 | The Lovely Bones | $2,300,000 | $3 million |
| 10 | 10 | Sherlock Holmes | $2,630,000 | $3 million |
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