Word: dearly
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Call it a Super Bowl weekend upset or proof of the law of diminishing returns - or even the triumph of one love story over another. Whatever the explanation, Dear John, a young-adult weepie based on a novel by The Notebook's Nicholas Sparks, dethroned Avatar as king of the domestic box office, according to early studio estimates. The clear victory - $32.4 million for Dear John to the sci-fi eco-epic's $23.6 million - ends Avatar's weekend winning streak at seven. James Cameron's previous smash, Titanic, reigned for an astounding 16 consecutive weeks, from its opening...
...strategy of the folks at Screen Gems - the company that took on Dear John after New Line surrendered the property when the company got folded into its parent, Warner Bros. - was to open the movie on Super Bowl weekend, when American males, a big part of Avatar's constituency, were preoccupied with large men running, throwing and writhing in pain. Director Lasse Hallström, who has helmed such dewy fare as Chocolat, Something to Talk About and The Shipping News, gave the remaining femme audience the standard Harlequin cocktail of a handsome soldier (G.I. Joe's Channing Tatum...
...Disney animated feature The Princess and the Frog. That was another fish-out-of-water (or amphibian-in-the-bayou) love story, about a New Orleans girl who hopes to build her dream restaurant but is turned into a frog when she kisses a cursed prince. In Dear John, the hero meets his sweetheart by diving into a lake to retrieve her purse. The Sparks story has even more in common with Cameron's. In both pictures, a U.S. soldier encounters a beguiling outsider with an affinity for green housing: Dear John's female lead works for Habit for Humanity...
...Dear John's eminence will be more fleeting, but it certainly escaped the ignominious-flop status of the weekend's other wide release, From Paris with Love. That John Travolta spy-action film earned only a quarter of Dear John's take. Another burly espionage melodrama, the Mel Gibson vehicle Edge of Darkness sank over 60% in its second frame. Meanwhile, the male-oriented Legion and The Book of Eli fell into the bottom half of the top 10, behind the frilly Kristen Bell romantic comedy When in Rome...
...Dear John, $32.4 million, first weekend 2. Avatar, $23.6 million; $630.1 million, eighth week 3. From Paris with Love, $8.1 million, first weekend 4. Edge of Darkness, $7 million; $29.1 million, second week 5. Tooth Fairy, $6.5 million; $34.3 million, third week 6. When in Rome, $5.5 million; $20.9 million, second week 7. The Book of Eli, $4.8 million; $82.2 million, fourth week 8. Crazy Heart, $3.7 million; $11.2 million, eighth week 9. Legion, $3.4 million; $34.7 million, third week 10. Sherlock Holmes, $2.63 million; $201.6 million, seventh week 11. The Blind Side, $2.6 million; $241.6 million, 12th week...