Avatar again held on to its crown, topping the box office for the fifth consecutive weekend with an estimated three-day gross of $41.3 million.
That brings the James Cameron feature that much closer to the top of the all time box office charts. Avatar now has taken in more than $491 million domestically and $1.1 billion overseas, for a total of $1.6 billion that’s now within shooting range of Titanic‘s $1.8 billion.
The weekend was pretty solid for the non-Avatar films, with the action thriller Book of Eli opening in second place with a strong $31.6 million gross. The expansion to wide release for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones took in just over $17 million.
The animation-live action hybrid film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, continues to perform well, taking $11.5 million in its fourth weekend out. That was good enough for fourth place and a domestic total of $192.5 million. With overseas grosses of about $136 million for a worldwide gross of $332 million, expect Fox to make this trilogy sooner rather than later.
Disney’s The Princess and the Frog took in $2.7 million in its eighth weekend of release. That lifts the movie’s domestic earnings to $97 million. The film has yet to be released in any overseas markets.
Grosses will update after Monday, which is a day off for many in the United States to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King.
