It wasn’t even close. Against a handful of holdovers and one weak new release, Summit Entertainment’s Warm Bodies walked off with this year’s Super Bowl box office prize. From 3,009 locations, the zombie comedy earned an estimated $20 million – more than twice the total of the number two title. Bullet to the Head, the frame’s only other wide release, took in just $4.5 million from 2,404 locations for a sixth place finish.

Conventional wisdom tells us that people don’t go to the movies on Super Bowl weekend. Of course, that wisdom has been tested by the big debuts of Hannah Montana: The Best of Both Worlds, Taken and Dear John, in recent years. In 2013, Warm Bodies should become the latest title to buck Super Bowl convention. The teen-zombie romance earned an estimated $8.1 million from 3,009 locations on Friday, including $600,000 from its midnight premieres. That puts the film on track for a three-day total of $20 million instead of the low-to-mid teens that had been projected. Projections also failed to gauge the future of the frame’s second wide release: Bullet to the Head. The Sylvester Stallone action movie was expected to earn between $6 and $7 million this weekend – in the manner of Schwarzenegger’s recent The Last Stand. Instead, Bullet to the Head took in an estimated $1.7 million from 2,404 locations on Friday, placing its three-day prospects at just $4.6 million. We’ll have full details tomorrow.

After surprising us on Friday with its first-place debut, Think Like A Man has surprised again with its estimated $33 million haul from 2,015 locations.  That is the best per-screen average of the week (wide releases) and it nearly doubles expectations for the comedy. In second place, The Lucky One earned a solid $22.8 million and then there’s The Hunger Games… not sick of hearing about that one yet, are you?

Those of you who like a side of certainty with your box office entrée may want to dine elsewhere this morning. That’s because we’re witnessing an extremely close race between Safe House and The Vow for number one. As estimates currently stand, Safe House seems to have the edge – $23.9 million to The Vow’s $23.6 million. But the real news is how none of the new President’s Day releases – including the 3D sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – could threaten the holdovers in their fight for first.

There was good news to go around this weekend as each of the four major studio releases opened to over $20 million.  That is an almost unheard of feat on any weekend, let alone a non-holiday-enhanced weekend in February. Overall, the box office looks to finish up 25% from last year’s post-Super Bowl frame to provide 2012 its sixth win in a row.

On Easter weekend the animated hit Rio managed to hold on to its number one perch for a second weekend in a row with an estimated $26.8 million.  The padding between Fox’s birds and the Tyler Perry’s bawd was pretty slim, however.  In second place Madea’s Big Happy Family was right behind Rio with an estimated $25.8 million.

Super Bowl weekend is not known for its huge debuts – 2010 being the notable exception.  And with much of the country still dealing with their endless winter nightmares and the rest transfixed by the game, this weekend has a good excuse for its low numbers.

After finishing in first on Friday, The Rite stayed on top with a three day estimate of $15 million from its 2,985 locations.  No Strings Attached followed in second place, holding on to 58% of its first weekend total.  The Mechanic opened in third for the weekend with $11.5 million, a figure that was well above most projections for the R-rated action film.

It was a record breaking Easter weekend debut for WB/Legendary’s much-hyped Clash of the Titans remake. The newly-christened 3D pic took in an estimated $61.4 million from 3,777 locations including 1,810 3D screens it managed to pilfer from Alice in Wonderland.

It seems that every week of 2010 has brought us a new record-breaker at the box office. Last week the romantic drama Dear John became the top earner on a Super Bowl weekend. Only slightly more impressive was the month-long reign of Avatar during which the 3D titan took down nearly every all-time box office category Hollywood could throw at it.  This weekend saw yet another record fall. Valentine’s Day, director Garry Marshall’s star-packed romantic comedy, has already become the highest grossing film over President’s Day weekend – before Monday’s numbers have even been counted.

After seven weeks and over $630 million dollars, the Avatar-domination of the domestic box office has been brought to a close. And what title finally proved powerful enough to take down the most profitable film of all time? A romantic confection called Dear John.

It looks like Avatar has finally met its match. The death blow came from a most unlikely quarter: the romantic drama Dear John. The latest movie to carry the “from the author of The Notebook” tag, Dear John opened to a stronger-than-expected $13.8 million on Friday and is now on its way to a projected weekend take in the $30 million range. Avatar brought in less than half of John‘s total – though its $6.1 million in week eight still smoked the estimated $3 million collected by From Paris with Love on its debut date. Avatar has lost Fridays in the past only to go on to victory in the weekend race. But on those occasions, the film’s margin of defeat was much smaller and there was no demographically-appealing sporting event looming. Avatar fans, start stealing yourselves for a second place finish… just in case.

Opening tomorrow is director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) new film Dear John.  Here’s the synopsis:

Based on the best-selling Nicholas Sparks book, Dear John tells the story of  John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John¹s increasingly dangerous deployments.  While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas – correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

While I’m not usually a fan of the Nicholas Sparks genre…I’ll admit to enjoying Dear John a lot more than I expected to.  Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried have great chemistry and the romance and story feels believable.  If you’re girlfriend/wife asks you to see the film, bite the bullet.  Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of bad films in this genre and this is definitely not one of them.

To help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.  Hit the jump to watch what they had to say:

International best-selling author Nicholas Sparks sat down with us recently to talk about Dear John, the latest film to be adapted from one of his novels. Directed by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström, Dear John tells the story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. The film also stars Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins.

Sparks, who currently resides in North Carolina with his wife and five children, has published fifteen novels of which six have been turned into films. They include The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Last Song, Dear John, and Nights in Rodanthe. Sparks also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his novel, The Last Song. The film rights for his novel, The Lucky One, have been sold to Warner Bros. with Douglas McGrath attached to direct. Sparks has also sold screenplay adaptations of True Believer and At First Sight.

Nicholas Sparks talked to us about walking the fine line between drama and melodrama, how pleased he is with the way Lasse Hallström and the cast captured his vision on film, and what a love story like Dear John has in common with the Humphrey Bogart classic, Casablanca. Here’s what he had to say:

From his growing list of films that include Dito Montiel’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Andy Fickman’s She’s the Man, Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss, Stephen Sommers’ G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and most recently, Dear John, Channing Tatum has captured the attention of critics and audiences alike by choosing diverse roles in vastly different genres and working with some of the best directors in the industry.

Helmed by three-time Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström and based on the novel by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks, Dear John tells the story of John Tyree (Tatum), a handsome, soft spoken Special Forces soldier visiting his father in South Carolina while home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the beautiful, idealistic college student he falls in love with after they meet following a chance encounter on the beach during her spring vacation.

Channing Tatum sat down with us to talk about his character, the line between drama and melodrama, what it was like working with Lasse Hallström and Richard Jenkins, and his upcoming projects Son of No One with Dito Montiel and the recently completed The Eagle of the Ninth directed by Kevin Macdonald. Here’s what he had to tell us: