Box Office Report, Valentines Day Movie Dominates

Dude here again. It seems the reign of Avatar is crumbling slightly, and it's for the best. It's time to move on to new things, and progress forward. We've spent our time on Pandora, and it's a place we can always revisit on one way or another. But more movies need to come out, more unexplored worlds that require our attention. And that's okay.

Unless all these movies are in 3-D, because that's a trend ready to burn out fast. (And furious).  

This weekend, a crowded "holiday" weekend slate comes in and cleans house.. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday).

• 1. Valentine's Day (WB)- $52.4, 3665 screens, week 1, $52.4 total
• 2. Percy Jackson and The Olympians... (Fox) - $31.1, 3356 screens, week 1, $31.1 total
• 3. The Wolfman (Uni) - $30.6, 3222 screens, week 1, $30.6 total
• 4. Avatar (Fox) $22.0, 2685 screens, week 9, $659.6 total
• 5. Dear John (ScrGm) - $15.3, 2975 screens, week 2, $53.1 total
• 6. The Tooth Fairy (Fox) - $5.6, 2748 screens, week 4, $41.5 total
• 7. From Paris With Love (LGF)- $4.7, 2722 screens, week 2, $15.8 total
• 8. Edge of Darkness (WB)- $4.5, 2615 screens, week 3, $36.0 total
• 9. Crazy Heart (FoxS)- $4.0, 1005 screens, week 9, $16.5 total
• 10. When In Rome (BV)- $3.4, 2125 screens, week 3, $26.0 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means the shame of Dear John has NOTHING on the shame of Valentine's Day taking in that obscene amount of money. On the one hand, I'm happy for Garry Marshall, who is truly one of the nicest men on Earth. But this also means we'll be treated to more vapid romantic ensemble "comedies" centered around holidays. While this bodes well for my "Arbor Day" script, it does not bode well for humankind.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief wins the race for longest title, but failed to capture some of the Harry Potter magic Fox was hoping for. Despite hiring the latter film's director. Still, a very respectable opening, and better than previous attempts to cash in on Potter. (Which also never seem to work).

The Wolfman finally saw a release! And it seems to have attracted enough interested folk to also have a respectable opening! Not bad, considering everything it took to actually get that movie on a screen. Of course if it continues success, that means more updated (or rebooted) monster flicks. Most likely in 3-D, but only after the fact.

Everything else seems status quo, returning to normal box office patterns and routines. Nothing too shocking, nothing Earth shattering. I feel this is because Avatar broke almost every record out there already, so it's not going to make that much of a difference what comes out. Even though Avatar only dropped 3 percent from last week's take. That movie's unstoppable. Until it gets kicked off the 3-D screens for all the other 3-D fare we're about to be assaulted with.

Below the radar, My Name Is Khan, which could be a documentary about either Ghengis Khan or Ricardo Montalban (Ed. Note: It's Neither) opened up on 120 screens to take in $1.8 million. Impressive. as it's also the highest per screen average of the whole group. Even more impressive? I have no idea what this movie is.

So there, you have my amazing break down. Next week, Scorsese finally gets to show us Shutter Island, which means I don't have to see that damn trailer anymore!

Until next weekend.......

(All Numbers courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com)