‘Dear John’, the romantic drama directed by Lasse Hallstrom, defeated James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ at the weekend box office, setting the record as the highest-grossing film in Superbowl Sunday history.
For the first time since its release, ‘Avatar’ was bumped to second place with $23.6 million in earnings—a clear 25% drop from the original figures. Cameron’s film has out-grossed all movies in cinema history, with an astonishing $630 million in domestic sales.
Meanwhile, the movie ‘From Paris With Love’ did not have a very positive debut in the silver screen. ‘Taken’ director Pierre Morel offered audiences an action movie starring John Travolta as an over-the-top CIA operative; however, the movie only earned about $8.1 million.
A great deal of ‘Dear John’s’ achievement can be credited to the very successful marketing propaganda aimed towards women, who encompassed almost 84% of the viewing audience. The film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ novel was wholly financed by Relativity Media and circulated by Sony’s Screen Gems division.
Also, Mel Gibson’s ‘Edge of Darkness’ ended with $7 million, losing about 59% of its total haul from last week, while the movie ‘Tooth Fairy’ took advantage of the lack of other children’s movies during the said week.
Most women flocked to watch ‘Dear John’ instead of the movie ‘When in Rome’, even though both movies were catered to women. ‘When in Rome’s’ 10-day total earning was only at $21 million.
‘The Book of Eli’ is on the seventh spot with approximately $4.8 million, whereas ‘Crazy Heart’ was boosted by its Oscar nominations as 700 theaters have already started to distribute the film.
‘Legion’ rounded up ninth, whilst Sherlock Holmes landed in the tenth spot, adding more revenue to its total earnings.
