Although there was little doubt Avatar was going to top the box office this weekend, many industry watchers have been wondering just how big it would open. Well, now the estimated weekend figures are in, and the movie opened to a good but not astounding $73 million in the US, with some suggesting snow storms in the east of the country kept the figure below what many in the industry had expected.
However the film did better internationally, taking $159.2 million in 106 non-US territories for an overall worldwide gros of $232.2 million for its opening weekend. That marks the sixth biggest global release ever, which certainly isn’t too shabby.
The only other major opener was Did You Hear About The Morgans?, starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker, which opened to a less than auspicious $7 million in the US.
Getting a boost from its Golden Globe nominations, Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air hit the the Top 10 for the first time, explanding into more theatres and scoring $3.1 million for an eighth place finish.
There were also a couple of limited new releases that fell outside the top 10, but which certainly bode well for the films’ future. Crazy Heart, which has Oscar buzz for Jeff Bridges performance, scored $84,204 from only four theatres, but even better was the $246,933 taken by Rob Marshall’s new musical, Nine, which also went into only four theatres, before expanding next weekend.
Take a look below for the full US top 10 for the weekend of December 18th-20th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Avatar | $73.0 | $73.0 |
| 2 | The Princess And The Frog | $12.2 | $44.7 |
| 3 | The Blind Side | $10.0 | $164.7 |
| 4 | Did You Hear About The Morgans | $7.0 | $7.0 |
| 5 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | $4.3 | $274.5 |
| 6 | Invictus | $4.1 | $15.8 |
| 7 | Disney’s A Christmas Carol | $3.4 | $130.7 |
| 8 | Up In The Air | $3.1 | $8.1 |
| 9 | Brothers | $2.6 | $22.0 |
| 10 | Old Dogs | $2.1 | $158.9 |