Avatar claimed the title of highest-grossing second weekend ever, narrowly edging out The Dark Knight's $75.2 million, after dipping only 2% from its opening weekend's numbers. $57.9 million of its Christmas haul was from 3D sites, a new record for the format. After 10 days, Avatar's domestic total sits at a lofty $212.7 million, and with its $410.9 million foreign take, James Cameron is once again king of the world as his latest film's worldwide total is at a staggering $623.6 million.

The new wide releases all pulled their weight, with Sherlock Holmes leading the pack. The star power of Robert Downey, Jr. helped vault the film into 2nd place with a $62.4 million bow, and its Friday take of $24.6 million handily set the new record for best Christmas day opening. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (I want to destroy that title) meanwhile defied all odds by not only being worse than the original, but out-grossing it as well. It had a weekend haul of $48.9 million for 3rd place, and tallied with its Wednesday opening, the film has hit an unconscionable five-day total of $75.6 million. Numbers like that have me living in terror that a third installment is inevitable. Thanks a lot, kids.

Nancy Meyer once again showed that romantic comedies with adults over 50 years old do, in fact, have an audience. It's Complicated's 4th place debut with $22.1 million outdid Meyer's Something's Gotta Give, anchored by Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin's on-screen indiscretions. The Blind Side kept up its impressive run, rounding out the top 5 with $11.5 million.]]>

Between Christmas falling on a Friday and a slew of strong new releases, this past weekend became the highest-grossing ever as Avatar repeated at the number 1 spot with a smashing $75.6 million.

Avatar claimed the title of highest-grossing second weekend ever, narrowly edging out The Dark Knight’s $75.2 million, after dipping only 2% from its opening weekend’s numbers. $57.9 million of its Christmas haul was from 3D sites, a new record for the format. After 10 days, Avatar’s domestic total sits at a lofty $212.7 million, and with its $410.9 million foreign take, James Cameron is once again king of the world as his latest film’s worldwide total is at a staggering $623.6 million.

The new wide releases all pulled their weight, with Sherlock Holmes leading the pack. The star power of Robert Downey, Jr. helped vault the film into 2nd place with a $62.4 million bow, and its Friday take of $24.6 million handily set the new record for best Christmas day opening. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (I want to destroy that title) meanwhile defied all odds by not only being worse than the original, but out-grossing it as well. It had a weekend haul of $48.9 million for 3rd place, and tallied with its Wednesday opening, the film has hit an unconscionable five-day total of $75.6 million. Numbers like that have me living in terror that a third installment is inevitable. Thanks a lot, kids.

Nancy Meyer once again showed that romantic comedies with adults over 50 years old do, in fact, have an audience. It’s Complicated’s 4th place debut with $22.1 million outdid Meyer’s Something’s Gotta Give, anchored by Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin’s on-screen indiscretions. The Blind Side kept up its impressive run, rounding out the top 5 with $11.5 million.

Up in the Air expanded wide to 1,895 theaters and grossed a healthy $11.3 million for 6th place, but The Princess and the Frog and Nine, to a greater extent, both failed to gain any traction as they finished with $9 million and $5.5 million, respectively. In the specialty market, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus bowed with $124,743 across 4 sites, or a solid $31,186 per-theater average.

There won’t be any new releases until the week after New Years, when a middling trio of wide openers will compete with this past weekend’s juggernauts. Vampire action-thriller Daybreakers hits theaters alongside Amy Adams’ romantic comedy Leap Year and Michael Cera’s teen comedy Youth in Revolt. Leap Year is definitely the easiest sell here so I expect it to finish ahead of the pack, though strong reviews and word-of-mouth makes Daybreakers a dark horse. Youth In Revolt will most likely finish third because though it is also receiving a lot of positive buzz, the film has a bigger mountain to climb with its niche target audience and the Weinstein Company/Dimension’s history of disappointing box office returns. Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palm d’Or winning drama The White Ribbon opens this Wednesday in limited release as well. The year-end record is 58 for 82, or 71%.

Check out the top 12 below, or head on over to Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart:

New releases highlighted in yellow

Despite heavy snowstorms across the American Northeast, James Cameron's sci fi epic Avatar hauled in an estimated $73 million over the weekend to take the top spot at the box office. That figure put Avatar into the record books as the highest grossing debut ever for a non-sequel/remake/adaptation, and also made it the second-highest opening in December behind just I Am Legend's $77.2 million back in 2007.

Heavy snowfall bombarded the East Coast over the weekend, which saw marked declines starting Saturday as the brunt of the storm hit. Still, Avatar managed to get a good number of folks to the theater, with 3D presentations accounting for about $52 million of the gross. IMAX doesn't report its numbers until Monday, but company reps are already saying the film has broken every major IMAX record. An additional $159.18 million came in through international territories, which brought Avatar's worldwide debut up to a whopping $232.2 million. With movies traditionally gaining steam through Christmas, Avatar is already well on its way to making back its sky-high budget and becoming another stellar blockbuster hit for Cameron.

The other new wide release, Did You Hear About The Morgans?, made virtually no noise in its opening and managed only $7 million for 4th place. Last weekend's number 1, The Princess and the Frog, fell to second with a $12.2 million showing and brought its total to a so-so $44.8 million. The Blind Side continued its strong run and came in 3rd with $10 million, while The Twilight Saga: New Moon rounded out the top 5 with $4.4 million (and just barely edged out Invictus' 6th place, $4.2 million weekend).]]>

Updated: Variety is now reporting that Sunday numbers were stronger than expected, with Avatar’s final tally being $77.3 million to finish ahead of I Am Legend as the best December opening ever.

Despite heavy snowstorms across the American Northeast, James Cameron’s sci fi epic Avatar hauled in an estimated $73 million over the weekend to take the top spot at the box office. That figure put Avatar into the record books as the highest grossing debut ever for a non-sequel/remake/adaptation, and also made it the second-highest opening in December behind just I Am Legend’s $77.2 million back in 2007.

Heavy snowfall bombarded the East Coast over the weekend, which saw marked declines starting Saturday as the brunt of the storm hit. Still, Avatar managed to get a good number of folks to the theater, with 3D presentations accounting for about $52 million of the gross. IMAX doesn’t report its numbers until Monday, but company reps are already saying the film has broken every major IMAX record. An additional $159.18 million came in through international territories, which brought Avatar’s worldwide debut up to a whopping $232.2 million. With movies traditionally gaining steam through Christmas, Avatar is already well on its way to making back its sky-high budget and becoming another stellar blockbuster hit for Cameron.

The other new wide release, Did You Hear About The Morgans?, made virtually no noise in its opening and managed only $7 million for 4th place. Last weekend’s number 1, The Princess and the Frog, fell to second with a $12.2 million showing and brought its total to a so-so $44.8 million. The Blind Side continued its strong run and came in 3rd with $10 million, while The Twilight Saga: New Moon rounded out the top 5 with $4.4 million (and just barely edged out Invictus‘ 6th place, $4.2 million weekend).

In the specialty market, Rob Marshall’s Nine bowed spectacularly to the tune of $247,000 at 4 theaters, or a weekend-best $61,750 average. Crazy Heart also fared well, with $84,200 at four sites for a $21,050 average.

Avatar will face some stiff competition next week when Sherlock Holmes bows at theaters. Likewise, It’s Complicated will come into the picture with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which I still can’t believe is getting a theatrical release (TELL ME those ads don’t look like direct-to-DVD hooey). Incidentally, that’s also the order that I think the new releases will finish in next week. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will open in limited release as well. The record stands at 57 for 79.

Check out the top 12 below, or head on over to Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart:

New releases highlighted in yellow

We've already gotten a hint of the eye-popping visuals to expect from Imaginarium with the U.K. trailer that was released a couple of months ago, and the domestic trailer certainly reinforces that. The early word out of festivals has been that this is a return to form for Gilliam, with many of the themes from the director's early, best works reasserting themselves here. Personally, I think it looks like Gilliam just let his imagination run wild here, and I can't wait to see what he's got in store for us this time.

Check out the trailer after the jump.]]> Heath Ledger delivered one of his most unforgettable performances in last year’s The Dark Knight, but it may be his final turn in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus that defines the actor’s tragically short career. From the trailer alone, you can see the effortlessly charming, darkly brooding, and completely singular energy that Ledger brought to his roles. It’s a shame we will never see the film as it was originally intended, but Gilliam has scrounged up a not-unflattering trio of understudies in Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel, and Jude Law to pick up the slack in the wake of Ledger’s passing.

We’ve already gotten a hint of the eye-popping visuals to expect from Imaginarium with the U.K. trailer that was released a couple of months ago, and the domestic trailer certainly reinforces that. The early word out of festivals has been that this is a return to form for Gilliam, with many of the themes from the director’s early, best works reasserting themselves here. Personally, I think it looks like Gilliam just let his imagination run wild here, and I can’t wait to see what he’s got in store for us this time.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

Yahoo has it up in glorious HD as well.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is slated for release on October 16, 2009.