‘Avatar’s’ domestic opening slowed by snow storms, earns $73 million at box office

Although hampered by furious snow storms in the north-eastern United States, James Cameron’s big-budget action feature Avatar took the No. 1 spot at the North American box office over the weekend.

The highly-touted sci-fi extravaganza, budgeted at around $250 million, scored $73 million domestically during its debut. Avatar undoubtedly suffered from the severe blizzards that landed on northern portion of the eastern American seaboard. Many experts see the film as having “long longs” thanks to heavy buzz and early critical acclaim. Fox should expect Avatar’s domestic gross at around $220-280 million.

Internationally, Avatar nearly earned back its investment with $232 million. This marks the best global launch ever for a non-sequel.

The weekend’s other debut, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, landed at No. 4 with $7 million and should enter first run theaters soon.

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog earned $12.2 million at No. 2, beating the Sandra Bullock sleeper hit, The Blind Side, which nabbed another $10 million.

New Moon narrowly defeated Clint Eastwood’s Invictus to the tune of $4.37 million, bringing the total gross of the Twilight sequel to a hefty $275 million since its Nov. 20 opening.

Still in limited release until Dec. 23, moved from its original Christmas Day release, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, cracked the top ten with $3.1 million at No. 8.

Nine pulled in $61,750 per screen on four screens with an impressive weekend performance.

Here’s your top ten at the box office:

1. (-) Avatar – $73M (N)
2. (1) The Princess And The Frog – $12.2M ($44.8M)
3. (2) The Blind Side – $10M ($165 M)
4. (-) Did You Hear About The Morgans? – $7 (N)
5. (4) The Twilight Saga: New Moon – $4.37M ($275M)
6. (3) Invictus – $4.17M ($15.8M)
7. (5) A Christmas Carol – $3.42M ($131M)
8. (11) Up In The Air – $3.1M ($8.11M)
9. (6) Brothers – $2.63M ($22.1M)
10. (7) Old Dogs – $2.29M ($43.6M)