Edge of Darkness opened to a mediocre $17.1M, a far cry from my $24M prediction. I thought the return of Mel Gibson to the big screen after an 8 year absence would generate more excitement, but alas I was wrong. The film has received mostly positive reviews (I thought it was good) and will probably have a decent hold next weekend with a moderate drop of about 40%. The films movie contract is currently trading at $47 on the Cantor Exchange which seems a bit low to me. I expect Edge of Darkness to collect about $55M during the Popcorn Period*.

With nothing else to entice them, young women drove When in Rome to a decent third place debut with $12.1M exactly as I predicted. The film has been getting trashed by critics but that didn’t seem to matter to its target audience. With no new competition next weekend, When In Rome should have another solid weekend in front of it and it should also have a decent hold on Valentine’s Day weekend. The movie contract is currently trading at $29. When in Rome should collect about $35M during the Popcorn Period. 

Avatar is the only film since Titanic to take the top spot 7 weeks in a row. The film dipped a mere 14% to collect another $30M, breaking the record for largest seventh weekend gross in box office history. Titanic previously held the record with $25.9M. Avatar’s weekend gross was very close to my $28M forecast. The films total now stands at $594.5M, within striking distance of Titanic’s record haul of $600.8M. By Thursday, Avatar should sail past Titanic to become the biggest domestic money maker of all time.

To see how the rest of the top 10 shaped up and how my other predictions for the weekend fared, check out the chart below.

Be sure to come back Thursday for my predictions for this weekend’s new releases Dear John and From Paris With Love. 

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