Avatar loses box office crown to cheap ‘chick flick’
The romantic drama opened at number one with three-day sales of $32.4 million (€23.6m) across the US and Canada, crushing both industry forecasts and reigning champ Avatar, according to studio estimates.
James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi spectacular slipped to second place with $23.6m in its eighth weekend. But Avatar remained the top pick overseas, earning $76m. Its worldwide tally rose to $2.21 billion, divided between $630.1m from North America and $1.58bn from foreign markets.
Avatar last week surpassed the $601m haul of Cameron’s 1997 release Titanic to become the biggest movie of all time in North America. It had already taken the international and worldwide titles from Titanic thanks to ticket-price inflation and the higher cost of 3D screenings.
Pundits had forecast the 20th Century Fox release would lose its North American crown next weekend to Valentine’s Day, which will take advantage of the eponymous holiday and the US Presidents Day weekend.
But few predicted that Dear John would cause a stampede to movie theatres by young women. “When they come out, young women come out in droves,” said Geoffrey Ammer, president of worldwide marketing at the film’s closely held financier Relativity Media.
Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried star as lovers whose romance is curtailed by the September 11 attacks. It was directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, who also wrote The Notebook.
