BLUE IS THE NEW GREEN
“Avatar” has done the impossible--$1 billion ($670.3 million foreign, $352.1 million domestic) in just 21 days of release. With an additional $133.5 million in foreign territories and $68 million in North America this weekend, James Cameron’s epic has now crossed the hallowed $1 billion mark, making it the only film to do so in 2009, and highest grossing film released in 2009, unseating “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” ($929 mil). Domestically speaking, 2010’s first weekend at movie theaters looked an awful lot like last year, as there were no new releases, although that didn’t slow down the box office as holdovers held in a big, big way. For the third straight weekend, “Avatar” was king of the world as Fox's blockbuster shot up another $68 million, dropping just 10%, and now totaling $352 million domestically. Fox’s sci-fi juggernaut currently ranks #2 on the top grossing films released in 2009 and in a matter of days, will unseat “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which rolled up $401 million. “Sherlock Holmes” had the most precipitous drop in the Top 10, declining 38%, but still managed to hold on to the runner-up spot for the second weekend in a row with $38.3 million. With $140 million overall, there is no doubt a sequel will be announced soon, as Guy Ritchie’s film is already one of the Top 20 grossing films of 2009. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” continued to stock up a massive amount of nuts. Pulling in $36.6 million and dropping just 25%, Fox’s kiddie hit has socked away $157 million already with all of January to itself in terms of the young family demographic. The first film topped out at $217 million in North America and $360 million worldwide. Internationally, the sequel is just a nut shy of $100 million. “It’s Complicated” finished fourth as it dipped just 15%, grossing an additional $18.7 million. Universal’s comedy has now grossed $59 million--which is already more than their expensive flops of 2009-- “Land of the Lost” and “Funny People,” and just 1 million shy of “Bruno.” In fifth place, “The Blind Side” continued to hit its stride as it actually increased 10% since last weekend, grossing $12.6 million in its seventh smash week. The Sandra Bullock sports drama has now amassed $209 million, making it one of the Top 10 grossing films of 2009 and easily the best of her career. Could it really receive a Best Picture nod? Possibly. A Best Actress nomination is almost a shoe-in. The best up tick of the weekend however, went to Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” which finished seventh with $10 million and increased 11%. With $86 million, the Mouse House’s dabbling back into traditional animation is no doubt on its way to the $100 million club, but is still far away from becoming a breakout hit that the new standard, CG animation, routinely performs. Notably, Big Pictures’ Bollywood musical, “3 Idiots,” made the Top 12 for the second straight weekend at just 132 sites, grossing $1.5 million and $4.8 million overall. Overall box office for 2009 topped $10.5 billion. That’s an increase of over 10% versus 2008 and an increase in attendance of over 5%--1.41 billion tickets sold. The record for attendance is 1.6 billion achieved in 2002. Next weekend, prepare to be hit with genre flicks: Lionsgate pulls the horror card with “Daybreakers,” Universal goes with romance in “Leap Year,” and The Weinstein Co. hits up teen comedy in “Youth in Revolt.” Don’t expect any of the three new flicks to unseat the top blockbuste rs, as “Avatar,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Squekquel” are locks for the top three spots.
James Cameron, en 2008

Le film du réalisateur James Cameron, ''Avatar'', tourné en 3D relief, sorti mi-décembre 2009, aurait engrangé un milliard de dollars, selon la société spécialisée Exhibitor Relations, dont 350 millions de dollars aux États-Unis et au Canada, et un peu plus de 670 millions dans le reste du monde. Ainsi, Avatar est le film le plus rentable de l'année 2009. Le deuxième film ayant engrangé le plus de recette au box office est ''Transformers 2 : la Revanche'', sorti en juin dernier, avec 401 millions de dollars.