Weekend Box Office: 2010 begins with a bang

The New Year's holiday box office exploded over the weekend, with holdovers once again pulling in huge crowds of all ages.

Taking top spot for a third weekend, James Cameron's 3-D juggernaut "Avatar" pulled in an estimated $68.3 million for nearly $353 million. Next weekend will no doubt see the runaway grosses curtailed somewhat as the holidays are over and kids are returning to school, but that doesn't mean the movie won't still command the box office for the next couple of weeks. With no new big films on the horizon until mid-January, Cameron's film should remain right where it is.

Combined with its overseas gross, Cameron's uber-expensive blockbuster is about to join the exclusive billion dollar club, one that the director's last fictional film, 1997's "Titanic" comfortably sits atop of. Whether "Avatar" dethrones "Titanic" is anyone's guess. What is for certain is that "Avatar" will pass "The Dark Knight", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" to comfortably sit at number two (pre-inflation) when all is said and done.

Second place went to Warner's "Sherlock Holmes" with an estimated $39 million for a $141 million gross to date. Watch for a domestic gross north of $200 million for Guy Ritchie's action-oriented update of the legendary sleuth when all is said and done, which should lock a sequel in place for 2012. The huge haul for "Holmes" also caps off a great year for Warner Brothers, who had four blockbuster films: "Holmes", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "The Hangover" and the sleeper of 2009, "The Blind Side".

Speaking of the latter, the Sandra Bullock hit pulled in another $13 million to bring its gross up to $210 million to date. Don't be too surprised to see this film taking one of the coveted ten spots for Best Picture when the Academy Award nominations are announced, which will fuel its incredible box office run even more.

Third place went to the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" sequel (sorry, squeakuel) with an estimated $37 million and a twelve-day haul of $158 million. The film should wind up with a gross near or equal to the 2007 original's $217 million domestic take.

Fourth place went to the Meryl Streep romantic comedy "It's Complicated" with $19 million and an estimated 10-day gross of $59 million. As mentioned previously, adults tend not to rush out to films right away, which gives films aimed directly at them legs at the box office (providing that the movies are good, that is). Witness the run for "The Blind Side". I'm pretty sure that the majority of that film's audience is over 25. If word-of-mouth keeps up, watch for Nancy Meyers' film to end its run with close to $100 million in the till.

Sixth spot went to the George Clooney comedy/drama "Up in the Air", which pulled in $11 million, roughly what it pulled in during Christmas weekend, for an estimated gross of $45 million to date. As with "It's Complicated" and "The Blind Side", adults are taking their time to check out the film instead of rushing out all at once to see what all the fuss is about. The upcoming Oscars should help the grosses move along just fine over the next few weeks.

Seventh spot went to Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" with an estimated $11 million for an overall gross of $87 million. The film should hit the $110 million mark before the end of its run, but Disney must be a bit disappointed that the film hasn't performed better at the North America box office.

The remainder of the top ten is as follows: "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" with $5 million ($24.5 mil to date), "Invictus" with $4 million and a $32 million estimated gross, while the musical dud "Nine" once again brought up the rear with an estimated $3.8 million and a paltry $14 million gross to date.