Weekend Fix: Aliens Prove More Popular Than Vampires As Avatar Leads Box Office For 4th Weekend

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the most interesting Januaries in the history of the box office, and the funny thing is, it has very little to do with any of the January releases!  While Daybreakers had a solid enough debut, Leap Year and Youth In Revolt's openings are hardly anything to write home about.  Once again, the late December releases are the real story.  Avatar held fantastically on a weekend where most movies fall by at least 50%.  After four weekends, James Cameron's intergalactic adventure has earned $425 million, and it's showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.  Sherlock Holmes and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel also continued their great runs, and It's Complicated, The Blind Side, and Up In The Air more than held their own on a busy weekend.  All in all, between the new wide releases and the popular holdovers, the box office exhibited great depth, and that, my dear readers, is the key to a strong weekend.  It's not like there were two big earners at the top of the chart, followed by tons of paltry grosses. Each and every film pulled its own weight, taking in a solid amount of revenue, and leading to a robust weekend box office.  That makes my job interesting, so it's just the way I like it!  Overall, the Top 12 pulled in $146.6 million, a great 13% increase over last year.  Here's to hoping the rest of 2010 is just as great!  Watch the video above for my take on the weekend box office, as well as more of my musings on box office depth and its relationship to roasted garlic mashed potatoes, then check out the full box office chart below.

Top 12 Box Office Hits For January 8-10, 2010

Rank	Movie	Studio	Theaters	Weekend	Chg	AVG.	Total
1	Avatar	Fox	3422	$48,500,000	-29%	$14,173	$429,040,297
2	Sherlock Holmes	Warner Bros	3626	$16,610,000	-55%	$4,581	$165,178,000
3	Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel	Fox	3641	$16,300,000	-55%	$4,477	$178,184,676
4	Daybreakers	Lionsgate	2523	$15,000,000	New	$5,945	$15,000,000
5	It's Complicated	Universal	2955	$11,007,375	-41%	$3,725	$76,370,040
6	Leap Year	Universal	2511	$9,165,150	New	$3,650	$9,165,150
7	The Blind Side	Warner Bros	2880	$7,750,000	-35%	$2,691	$219,197,000
8	Up In The Air	Paramount	2218	$7,100,000	-34%	$3,201	$54,742,000
9	Youth In Revolt	Weinstein	1873	$7,000,000	New	$3,737	$7,000,000
10	The Princess And The Frog	Disney	2620	$4,743,000	-52%	$1,810	$92,639,000
11	Invictus	Warner Bros	1340	$1,715,000	-56%	$1,280	$33,500,000
12	The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus	Sony Classics	548	$1,706,507	1237%	$3,091	$2,105,637

All Numbers Provided By Exhibitor Relations Co.