Avatar
18
Legend, the largest domestic opening weekend for a film not based on a franchise (topping The Incredibles), and the 25th largest national United States weekend opening, despite a blizzard which blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend results. The IMAX opening also broke box office records, with 178 theaters generating approximately $9.5 million, 13% of the film's $73 million (at the time) domestic gross on less than 3% of the screens. International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were Russia ($20.8 million), France ($20.3 million), the UK ($14.1 million), Germany ($13.2 million), Australia ($11.9 million), South Korea ($11.4 million) and Spain ($10.9 million). Avatar's worldwide gross was an estimated
$232,180,000 after five days, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film. 58 international IMAX screens generated an estimated $4.1 million during the opening weekend. The film's revenues decreased by a mere 1.8% in its second weekend in domestic markets, earning $75,617,183, to remain in first place at the box office and recording the biggest second weekend of all time. The film experienced another small decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 9.4% to $68,490,688 domestically, though remaining in first place at the box office, to set another weekend record. On the 19th day of the film's international release, it crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, making it the fastest film ever to do so and also making it the highest-grossing release of 2009 worldwide. In its fourth weekend, Avatar continued its streak, leading the box office domestically, to set a new all-time fourth-weekend record of $50,306,217, and becoming the highest-grossing 2009 release in the United States. In the film's fifth weekend, it set the Martin Luther King Day four-day weekend record, grossing $54,401,446; its three-day take was $42,785,612, also a new fifth-weekend record, and held to the top spot to set the sixth weekend record as well, earning $34,944,081. On January 31, it became the first film to earn over $2 billion. It took $31,280,029 in the U.S. and Canada to set a seventh weekend record, and remained in the number one spot at the domestic box office for seven consecutive weeks, the most consecutive #1 weekends since Titanic spent 15