Posted by
Rosario T. Calabria on February 28, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Update: Click here to see the the final actual numbers for the weekend.
Original article follows below.
After a strong opening last weekend, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island was down less than 46% this weekend and managed to hold off two newcomers for a solid estimated $22.2 million (est. $75.076 million domestic cume). The film grossed an estimated $6.68M on Friday, grew an impressive 55% on Saturday to an estimated $10.363M and Warner Brothers is projecting a Sunday take of $5.157 million.
In the battle of openers, the Kevin Smith-directed R-rated buddy cop comedy Cop Out starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan grossed an estimated $18.565 million, holding off Breck Eisner’s horror remake The Crazies ($16.521 million). Cop Out — which marks the first film Kevin Smith has directed that he also didn’t write — is the biggest opening (single day and weekend) in Kevin Smith’s career as a director. Both films had identical Friday estimates ($5.98M), but Cop Out pulled ahead with a stronger Saturday (est. $7.76M vs. an estimated $6.35M for The Crazies). Cop Out is projected to have a stronger Sunday ($4.825M) than The Crazies ($4.191M).
The other big news this weekend is that Avatar broke $700 million. Now in its 11th weekend of release (top 5 in each weekend), the James Cameron-directed sci-fi 3D epic continues to live up to its billing, grossing an estimated $14.0 million (down less than 14%) which brings its 73-day domestic cume to $706.904 million. Avatar broke $700 million on Saturday (its 72nd day). Worldwide figures haven’t been updated yet, but at the moment Avatar is sitting just shy of $2.5B at $2.482 billion ($1.775B of which comes from overseas grosses). Head on over the jump for the weekend chart.
Continue reading Weekend Box Office Estimates (Feb. 26-28, 2010): Shutter Island #1 ($22.2M), Cop Out #2 ($18.6), The Crazies #3 ($16.5M) + Avatar passes $700M ($14.0M / $706.9M cume)
