The some what more surprising part within the box office goes to the $12 Million that went to Touchstone Pictures’ When In Rome. Clearly not loved by all critics, the power of random romantic comedies dumped in the dull months still continues to show it’s power within the droves of audiences just wanting to watch anything. The Tooth Fairy did not get the love for itself or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson like Twentieth Century Fox expected from this film, only making $26 Million in two weeks despite it’s $48 Million price tag. Maybe if little kids were not feeding the money making monster like Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, this fantasy-like tale would have more staying power. Here’s the rest of the box office below from Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (January 29-31)

1. Avatar  ($30 M)
2. Edge of Darkness  ($17.1 M)
3. When In Rome  (12 M)
4. Tooth Fairy  ($10 M)
5. The Book of Eli  ($8.7 M)
6. Legion  ($6.8 M)
7. The Lovely Bones  ($4.7 M)
8. Sherlock Holmes  ($4.5 M)
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($4 M)
10. It’s Complicated  ($3.7 M)

It’s February and you know what that means? Huge buckets full of commercialism, which is perfect for anything having to do with a sappy sort of subject matter. Speaking of sappy, the latest Nicholas Sparks inspired tale Dear John creeps up on the big screen this week along with From Paris With Love. In limited theaters this coming Friday is Frozen, District 13: Ultimatum and The Shinjuku Incident along with a New York release of The Red Riding Trilogy which is expected to expand to Los Angeles on February 12th.

Then we’ll tip-toe over to the newly released films, the first of them being the post-apocalyptic vampire tale Daybreakers which made $15 Million. That’s pretty good for the Ethan Hawke and Williem DaFoe starring feature with a $20 Million dollar budget. There is also the Amy Adams and Matthew Goode co-starring chick flick Leap Year managed to make decent bank with a round up of $9.1 Million domestically. If you want to go into how the other films are ranking in comparison to their budget a lot of them are doing pretty great, some like Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Jason Reitman’s buzz-worthy feature Up in the Air a couple of many that are booming during this winter season. Here’s the rest of the box office intake below from Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (January 8-10)

1. Avatar  ($48.5 M)
2. Sherlock Holmes  ($16.6 M)
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($16.3 M)
4. Daybreakers  ($15 M)
5. It’s Complicated  ($11 M)
6. Leap Year  ($9.1 M)
7. The Blind Side  ($7.7 M)
8. Up in the Air  ($7.1 M)
9. The Princess and the Frog  ($4.7 M)
10. Invictus  ($1.7 M)

It’s time to go mid month with this January with some more eagerly anticipated features such as The Book of Eli and The Spy Next Door with a New York and Los Angeles limited release of The Last Station.

Nothing was released this past Friday, which meant that everybody has time to catch up on some of the films that got released throughout the month of December that they have not seen. Sherlock Holmes continues to hold strong with the awesome star power of Robert Downey Jr. with it’s weekend intake of $38.3 Million. Films like Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel along with Up in the Air continue to make their steady box office wave of revenue, not surprising knowing that they’re hitting their target audiences and getting a nice amount of bank along with it.

The ones that are suffering box office-wise are in the form of Rob Marshall’s Nine along with the Clint Eastwood directed film Invictus. Both of them have been getting their fair share of award-nominated buzz but both of them are strangely not catching the kind of box office momentum you would expect films of that stature to get. Here’s the rest of the weekend box office provided by Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (January 1-3)

1. Avatar  ($68.3 M)
2. Sherlock Holmes  ($38.3 M)
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($36.6 M)
4. It’s Complicated  ($18.7 M)
5. The Blind Side  ($12.6 M)
6. Up in the Air  ($11.3 M)
7. The Princess and the Frog  ($10 M)
8. Did You Hear About the Morgans?  ($5.2 M)
9. Nine  ($4.2 M)
10. Invictus  ($4.1 M)

Hollywood wakes itself up for the dull months, but this time with the possibility of some awesome films to break that ongoing streak. On January 8th Bitch Slap comes out in limited theaters, with the rest of the mainstream releases being Leap Year, Daybreakers, and Youth in Revolt.

Do not forget though, Avatar did not end up reigning the box office without it’s share of competition. Like previously reported, Sherlock Holmes did give the flick a slight run for it’s money one day which means it more than likely made some cash, and it did. The movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, took in $65.3 Million for it’s opening weekend which shows the power of Downey Jr, the rest of the cast and what not. Following close behind is the hybrid animation and live action film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel managed to make itself some profit estimating to be $50.2 Million. All I can say is I wonder how fast it will be until Holmes and the Chipmunks get greenlit for more sequels at this point.

Last but certainly not least is the Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep romantic comedy of sorts called It’s Complicated which ended up taking in $22.1 Million. With a supposed price tag of $75 Million, this flick still has a ways to go to get even. On a fairly good note, it looks like the nationwide release of Jason Reitman’s feature Up in the Air gained itself a little more steam as it tallied up to bringing in $11.75 Million, already ridiculously close to making back it’s budget, hurray. At least it finally broke free from the tie stranglehold that it had on Christmas Day with The Blind Side, which to me is one of the surprise hits of the holiday season. Nine, however, is not looking too good since it only wrangled in $5.5 Million on it’s second weekend. You have to admit, it’s been one hell of a weekend for movies. Here’s the rest of the numbers for the weekend below from Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (December 25-27)

1. Avatar  ($75 M)
2. Sherlock Holmes  ($65.3 M)
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($50.2 M)
4. It’s Complicated  ($22.1 M)
5. Up in the Air  ($11.75 M)
6. The Blind Side  ($11.73 M)
7. The Princess and the Frog  ($8.6 M)
8. Nine  ($5.5 M)
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?  ($5 M)
10. Invictus  ($4.3 M)

It’s time to get ready for the New Year, and with that means were going into the dead months. However, it’s not looking as incredibly bleak as it normally would be in the month of January. With that said, the releases start up on Wednesday, December 30th with a limited one for The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond and the New York and Los Angeles release of The White Ribbon. In January, you’ll just have to wait and see until the 8th for the releases of several films which I will touch upon during the next box office report. Happy New Year to you all.

Let us not forget that these two were not the only films out in theaters on the holiday. The super kid-friendly CGI animated and live action hybrid film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel got away with $12 Million little nuts in their pockets, not surprising since the first flick made a nice chunk of money it’s opening weekend as well. The Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin starring film It’s Complicated $7.5 Million, which is not too bad for the comedy of sorts. Up in the Air did a couple of million better than it did a couple of days ago, making about $4 Million on Friday and tying up with The Blind Side. The unfortunate part is that the Jason Reitman flick is not showing too much improvement with revenue in regards it finally opening up nationwide. Perhaps the studios played it out a little wrong with the every-other-week openings and might have let the Oscar-contention steam that was flowing from this movie from so long finally start to slip away.

Last but not least is the Rob Marshall directed feature Nine which is not only one of the lowest grosses out of all of the weekend openers, with $2.2 Million, but could more than likely skid under the radar with audiences and not gather that much revenue for it’s opening weekend. Here’s the rest of the Christmas Day estimates below, with a special thanks to Coming Soon for digging up the estimates.:

Christmas Day Box Office (December 25th)

1. Sherlock Holmes  ($25 M)
2. Avatar  ($24 M)
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($12 M)
4. It’s Complicated  ($7.5 M)
5. Up in the Air  ($4 M)
6. The Blind Side  ($4 M)
7. Nine  ($2.2 M)
8. The Princess and the Frog  ($2 M)
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?  ($1.6 M)
10. Invictus  ($1.3 M)

Make sure to keep on reading up here on Killer Film for the final weekend tally along with other news, interviews and other sorts of cool features.

Even though it dropped to second place does not mean it didn’t take away some money in the process. Avatar managed to run away with $16.5 Million, a steady number that’s been resonating throughout the duration of it’s first box office week. The total domestically right now is about $125.9 Million, although the foreign box office hasn’t tallied in yet. Last we checked for this past weekend it already accumulated $232 worldwide, so Lord knows how much it is now.

Jason Reitman’s newest picture Up in the Air is running strong as it creeps inches away from it’s Christmas Day wide release. Taking in $1.7 Million just for Wednesday, the numbers will more than likely skyrocket once it spawns out into theaters nationwide. Here’s the rest of the Wednesday box office intake from erc BoxOffice.:

Wednesday Box Office (December 23rd)

1. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel  ($19 M)
2. Avatar  ($16.5 M)
3. The Princess and the Frog  ($2.5 M)
4. The Blind Side  ($2.2 M)
5. Up in the Air  ($1.7 M)
6. Did You Hear About the Morgans?  ($1 M)
7. A Christmas Carol  ($975,000)
8. Twilight Saga: New Moon  ($900,000)
9. Invictus  ($800,000)
10. Brothers  ($400,000)

Coming out this Christmas Day is the wide releases of Up in the Air along with The Young Victoria. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus comes out only in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow with the mainstream releases of It’s Complicated and Sherlock Holmes.

What do you think? Looks kind of cool-I’ll admit it-but keep it here for more info and our thoughts on the film in our December Preview, which is around the corner.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

The Betty Thomas directed live action and CGI animated feature stars Jason Lee and the voice talents of Justin Long and Anna Faris among others. One thing is for certain, this kid friendly sequel has a fair chance of being seen since it is released after the possibly epic sized James Cameron film Avatar rolls into theaters.