Box Office, James Cameron | featured news

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.

I think the word we're looking for is... "WOW!" James Cameron's Avatar earned yet another $19 million domestically on Monday, its 11th day in theaters, which is almost $3 million more than last Monday, when it earned $16.38 million. The $19 million marks the 7th biggest Monday of all-time and it pushes the film's domestic total to $232 million.

After earning an impressive $16.4 million domestically on Monday, James Cameron's Avatar added another $16.1 million on Tuesday! That's the second-highest number for a non-opening film ever (behind The Dark Knight 's $20.9 million) and third-biggest Tuesday of all-time, trailing only The Dark Knight and Transformers , which opened on a Tuesday in 2007 and earned $27.9 million.

After months of breathless buzz, speculation, and doubt, James Cameron's "Avatar" finally arrived in movie theaters nationwide, and its box office prognosis definitely isn't blue.

"Avatar" rang up $3.5 million in domestic boxoffice from 12:01 a.m. Friday performances.

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.