Anime News

Chicks Dump 'Avatar' With 'Dear John' No 8 Straight on Super Bowl Weekend
Date: 2/8/2010
Young women flocked to theaters over the weekend and managed to push the romance saga Dear John to a Super Bowl weekend record total estimated at $32.4 million. The military romance features the hunky Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe), and teenage girls who hadn?t found much to their liking at the movies in recent weeks came out in droves--84% of the Dear John audience was female and 64% was under 21.



Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): February 5-7, 2010




Film


Wknd Gross


Screens


Avg./Screen


Total Gross

1


Dear John


$32,400,000


2,969


$10,913


$32,400,000

2


Avatar


$23,600,000


3,000


$7,867


$630,093,000

3


From Paris with Love


$8,120,000


2,722


$2,983


$8,120,000

4


Edge of Darkness


$7,005,000


3,066


$2,285


$29,097,000

5


Tooth Fairy


$6,500,000


3,218


$2,020


$34,333,000

6


When in Rome


$5,504,000


2,456


$2,241


$20,899,000

7


The Book of Eli


$4,835,000


2,820


$1,715


$82,163,000

8


Crazy Heart


$3,650,000


819


$4,457


$11,188,000

9


Legion


$3,400,000


2,339


$1,454


$34,678,000

10


Sherlock Holmes


$2,630,000


1,805


$1,457


$201,579,000


Dear John is based on a bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose The Notebook was the basis for a surprise hit in 2004. The fact that critics disliked Dear John (only 29% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) proved to be far less important than the fact that the movie had a built-in audience of women who had read and enjoyed the book.



Meanwhile Avatar continued to do well. It dropped just 25% in its eighth weekend in theaters and still averaged a solid $7,867 per theater as it ran its record domestic total to $630.1 million. Although it lost its domestic crown, Avatar remained #1 overseas and its global total is now $2.21 billion.



Meanwhile John Travolta?s From Paris With Love debuted disappointingly in third place with an estimated $8.1 million. Directed by Pierre Morel whose Taken, which was also set in the City of Light, was one of the surprise hits of the first quarter in 2009, From Paris With Love was a disappointment considering that Taken took the Super Bowl weekend box office crown last year.



Two films that debuted last weekend fell off the table. Mel Gibson?s The Edge of Darkness dropped by 59%, while the Kristen Bell-starring When in Rome fell 55% as the female audience flocked to Dear John.



Meanwhile Guy Ritchie?s Sherlock Holmes passed the $200 million mark, the 10th film released in 2009 to do so. The updated Holmes film has now earned $444 million worldwide, a total that should insure that a sequel starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law will be made.



Overall the top ten films were up 2% from last year when Taken took the crown with $24.7 million.
Source: ICv2