Box Office, Friday Box Office | featured news

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.

Continuing its reign atop the boxoffice, Fox's "Avatar" easily held on to the No. 1 spot Friday as it entered its fourth weekend, earning another $13.3 million.

Fox pic tops first box office of 2010 -- Twentieth Century Fox's "Avatar" jumped the $300 million mark on New Year's Day--its 15th day in release--grossing an estimated $25 million from 3,461 theaters for a cume of $308.8 million.

Warner Bros.' period action pic "Sherlock Holmes" raked in $24.9 million yesterday, notching the best Christmas day opening ever at the domestic box office. Undeterred by the onslaught of another tentpole in the marketplace, Fox’s "Avatar" dipped 12%, taking $23.5 million off 3,456.

If there isn't significant attendance loss, then Hollywood is now estimating this pre-Xmas 3-day weekend's opening grosses at $80M -- or $27M for Friday including the midnight shows, then $30M on Saturday, and $23M on Sunday when most colleges and high schools are out Monday.

FRIDAY PM: Sources are giving me these first numbers for Friday:
1) Princess And The Frog (Disney) Fri $7.5M [3,434 runs] Est Wkd $27M
2) The Blind Side (Warner Bros) Fri $4.5M [3,388] Est Wkd $14.5M
3) Invictus (Warner Bros) Fri $3M [2,125 runs] Est Wkd $10M

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" was back at the top of the domestic boxoffice Friday, following a one-day slip to second place on Thanksgiving. The second in a planned series of pics based on teen novels by Stephenie Meyer, "New Moon" rung up $17.9 million Friday for a cumulative boxoffice of $206.1 million through its first eight days in release.

Summit Entertainment is now saying it debuted to $72.7 million from 4,024 North American theaters. This shatters both previous All-Time Friday and Single Day records of $67 million set by 2008's The Dark Knight.