Even with storms and icy weather paralysing major cities in the US and overseas, James Cameron’s much vaunted science fiction epic “Avatar” lived up to the hype, at least in terms of box office ticket sales, taking seventy three million at the domestic US box office and a staggering two hundred and thirty two million plus worldwide in just its first weekend of release. The film has already made movie history, being the biggest launch ever for any movie that is not a sequel to a previous hit, the ninth largest debut for any film ever, and also the second largest launch for a film opening in the month of December, just behind the Will Smith sci-fi actioner “I am Legend”, which earned over seventy seven million, but just beating the previous second place holder, Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, which took out just over seventy two million.
Industry pundits are already speculating that “Avatar” could end up only the fifth film in history to take in over a billion. The news was less good for the Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”, however, which could barely scrape seven million on its weekend debut. Second place in the domestic box office went to the sophomore weekend for Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog”, which took out just over twelve million, with third place seeing the Sandra Bullock starring sports drama “The Blind Side” rake in another impressive ten million after multiple weeks on release.
