“Avatar” hit the high notes in the box-office charts, landing at no. 1 with $73 million in domestic sales plus $159.2 million overseas, totalling its worldwide earnings to $232.2 million. 20th Century Fox, the film’s distributor, proclaimed that the $400 million used to make and market the film was a good investment.
“Absolutely. No question,” distribution head Chris Aronson said. The studio also reported a great audience reaction after watching James Cameron’s narrative. “The word of mouth is something that I don’t know I’ve ever seen in this business before,” he added.
Though “Avatar” was not able to top the $77.2 million record set by the debut of “I Am Legend” two Decembers ago, the film still managed to break the record of a 3-D opening previously held by “Up” over the summer.
“What they spent on this movie was totally justified, and they’re going to more than earn it back,” Hollywood.com’s box-office analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, said.
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are the stars of “Avatar”, which tells of a human-alien conflict set in the 22nd century.
Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog”, meanwhile, fell to no.2 with $12.2 million, raising the film’s earnings to $44.8 million.
The comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” made its debut at no. 4 with only $7 million, not meeting Sony’s $8 million expectation. “The weather really, really hurt,” Sony’s head of distribution, Rory Bruer, said.
Apart from the Oscar buzz, Paramount’s “Up in the Air”, which garnered six Golden Globe nominations, entered the top 10 and hit the no. 8 spot with $3.1 million.
