Saturday morning I thought that The Book Of Eli might actually pull off the feat of toppling the unstoppable Avatar, because it did lead the box office on Friday. Well, close, but no cigar. Avatar reigned supreme once again, and made an astonishing $41.3 Million in its 6th week of release, and it is still playing on over 3,000 screens.
Avatar has now surpassed Star Wars as the number three highest grossing movie of all time with a cumulative total of $491 Million. The Dark Knight stands at number two, with $533 Million.
The Book of Eli had a pretty decent showing, with $31.6 Million on just over 3,000 screens. If the movie gets good word of mouth, it should do well in upcoming weeks. In third place was The Lovely Bones, which fared better than I thought it would. It was postponed from last year, and has received somewhat of a critical drubbing, but it still managed $17.1 Million.
In my opinion, this is a testament to how much readers loved the book. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, hung around and made $11.5 Million for fourth place. The movie is closing in on $200 Million, as it now stands at $192 Million.
Sherlock Holmes rounded out the top five, making $9.8 Million. It barely edged out newcomer The Spy Next Door, which made $9.7 Million. This was a pretty uneventful weekend at the box office. Screen averages were modest at best.
Next week, another family film enters the fray (Tooth Fairy) and Harrison Ford returns to the big screen in the medical drama Extraordinary Measures. Will the beloved acting icon be able to best Avatar? Tune in next Monday.
