'Edge of Darkness' no match for 'Avatar'

By Sarah Sluis

Avatar continued its reign over the box office with its seventh week at

number one. The sci-fi crowd-pleaser coasted through the weekend with a mere 14% drop to rack up another $30 million. Just $5 million away from the

domestic all-time record of $600.4 million set by Titanic, Avatar will roll past the

milestone sometime this week. While Titanic is still the winner once the numbers are adjusted for inflation, both movies had remarkably similar trajectories, rising above initial bad press ("those blue creatures look funny, "there's no way it can make back its money") and then breaking record after record.

In second place, with about half the audience of Avatar, Mel Gibson-starring Edge of Darkness opened at $17.1 million, in line with industry expectations. The solid genre film (57% on Rotten Tomatoes) will draw in action and thrill-seeking moviegoers but won't expand much beyond its genre base.

Romantic comedy When in Rome opened on the high side of expectations, with $12 million of coins to count in its fountain. Its romcom cousin, Leap Year, opened a month ago to $9 million. Since both movies ended up with a 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating, When in Rome benefited from stronger marketing and a younger star to draw in young women to the sketched out, immature storyline.

After a so-so opening weekend, Tooth Fairy flexed some staying power with a small 26% drop, adding another $10 million to its under-the-pillow stash. At the opposite end of the spectrum, horror movie Legion fell a hard 61% to $6.8 million.

This Friday, Edge of Darkness and When in Rome will have to tough it out as they deal with fresh competition. From Paris with Love, an action film starring another older male star, John Travolta, will hit theatres to snatch away Edge of Darkness viewers. When in Rome will have to contend with Dear John, a romantic weepie starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.

'Avatar' passes 'Legion' and 'Tooth Fairy'

By Sarah Sluis

Avatar grabbed the top spot domestically once again, dipping 16% to gross $36 million. Overseas, it did even better, breaking the record set by Titanic. Its cumulative gross of $1.288 billion abroad bested that of Titanic, which finished at $1.242 billion abroad. Titanic still holds the record for domestic box office and worldwide box office (the sum of domestic and abroad). Domestically, no movie has been number one for six weeks in a row since Titanic. Now, I just want to know what director James Cameron's next project is--will Avatar 2 come to fruition?

Legion opened in second place with $18.2 million, half the gross of Avatar. Demon-angels and creepy grandmas and ice cream men just never get old. Last year, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, another male-skewing horror/sci-fi mix, opened at $20 million, so the two did roughly similar business.

Tooth Fairy opened two spots lower at number four with $14.5 million, significantly lower than Dwayne Johnson's past two starrers. 2007's The Game Plan, which had a similar set-up that played on Johnson's star persona, opened at $22.9 million. Last year's Race to Witch Mountain opened at $24.4 million. The kid-oriented competition wasn't significant either: The Spy Next Door fell to number ten this week with a $4.7 million gross, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel finished its fifth week at the box office in eighth place with $6.5 million. The Rock may be losing his kid base. Good thing his next film, The Other Guys, appears to be an older-skewing comedy.

Extraordinary Measures opened at number seven with $7 million. The Blind Side-esque movie played well in smaller cities and underperformed in big ones, giving distributor CBS Films reason to believe this movie will have strong staying power in less urban areas, where moviegoers often take awhile to catch up with the latest releases.

This Friday romcom When in Rome opens alongside Edge of Darkness, a crime thriller starring Mel Gibson.