Friday Box Office | featured news

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese continue to lure movie-goers to "Shutter Island," while James Cameron's "Avatar" has surpassed $700 million domestically....

Holdover Shutter Island, the Marty Scorsese/Leo DiCaprio psychological thriller from Paramount, will easily stay No. 1 again with just a 51% drop from a week ago. It made $6.7M Friday for what should be a $21M weekend and estimated cume of $75+M. Warner Bros' Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan buddy comedy Cop Out (formerly entitled A Couple Of Dicks) opened Friday with $6.2M for an expected $18.5M weekend which shows audiences are starved for laughs.

“Shutter Island,” yanked from the fall release schedule by a cost-cutting Paramount Pictures, was a strong No. 1 at the North American box office.

Paramount's delay of Shutter Island's release, once widely questioned, now looks shrewdly strategic. Sources tell me this 4th film collaboration between Marty Scorsese and Leo DiCaprio is shaping up tonight as the highest-grossing debut ever, bigger than 2002's Gangs Of New York, 2004's The Aviator, and 2006's The Departed (which posted their previous biggest opening ever of $26.8M).

Director Garry Marshall and his pack of A-list stars are on track to win the President’s Day weekend with the ensemble romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. Friday’s opening for the film starring Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper and many, many others is estimated at approximately $15 million, a number that is likely to reach over $50 million for the 4-day holiday frame.

It was love that slayed the mighty "Avatar" -- or, at least, knocked it out of the top position at the boxoffice that it has commanded for the previous seven weeks. "Dear John" proved to be more popular than expected, taking in an estimated $13.8 million on Friday in 2,969 theaters.

"Avatar" grossed yet another strong $30 million over the weekend for a new domestic total of $594.4 million. That stunningly puts James Cameron's blockbuster only days away from passing "Titanic's" U.S. mark of $600 million. "Edge of Darkness" found a solid $17.1 million and "When in Rome" $`12.1 million.

Now that 20th Century Fox's Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation or higher 3D ticket prices), it should pass $2 billion worldwide by early next week (its global total was $1,917,419,460 last Thursday). The pic's runaway success has answered all its critics, so there's not much more to say except, Wow!

Legion is, typically, a Sony Screen Gems piece that got dragged around for a bit... and the marketing dept. opened the thing to the mid-20s anyway... Oh... and that little Avatar thing. Another weekend record - for Weekend 6 - though it's about to start falling behind Titanic in this stat, probably next weekend. It's been running ahead of Dark Knight domestically for about a week as the fastest grosser ever, right now about $45 million ahead for 36 days.

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY PM: Alcon Entertainment's Book of Eli has become the 1st movie to be #1 after the 28-day reign of Avatar. Sources tell me the Denzel Washington starrer distributed by Warner Bros with a we-be-cool marketing campaign made $12 million Friday from 3,111 theaters. That probably adds up to $35M for the 4-day long weekend -- exactly what the studio expected after weeks of really strong tracking and crossover appeal. Once again, the spotlight is back on Alcon's Princeton duo funded by FedEx boss Fred Smith whose daughter Molly brought the guys The Blind Side.