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I stayed silent on the box-office potential of James Cameron's game-changing 3D release Avatar despite great temptation. If you are old enough to remember those "Titanic-Watch" columns from twelve years ago, you'll understand my hesitation. History and word of mouth favored a huge opening for Avatar; but December can also be a tricky month to launch a blockbuster. And so I kept my mouth shut until there were solid numbers to report. Here they are: Avatar launched at midnight Friday on 2,000 3D and IMAX 3D locations where it grossed $3.5 million. The estimates for all of December 18th put the film at $27 million from its 3,452 theatres. That's good enough for third on the all-time December opening list. Bad weather is likely to keep Saturday figures lower than expected, which means that the film may not reach its projected 3 day take of $80 million. But for anyone who is disappointed that Avatar did not demolish the box office right out of the gate, know this: this movie is going to be a BIG player well into January. Plus, it's always a mistake to bet against James Cameron. More on Avatar plus full weekend coverage tomorrow.

Title

Friday

Total

1

Avatar

$27,000,000

$27

2

The Princess & the Frog

$3,400,000

$35.9

3

The Blind Side

$3,200,000

$157.9

4

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

$2,300,000

$2.3

5

New Moon

$1,400,000

$271.6