Avatar's march to the top of the box office record book continues undaunted. For the sixth week in a row, Avatar topped the weekend box office with an impressive $36 million weekend. The domestic total is $552 million so far, $48 million short of Titanic; the international total is estimated $1,836 billion, just $6 million short of Titanic's all-time gross. The movie's slowing down, but it's still really far ahead of the competition.

This week saw a pretty successful crop of new releases. Avatar's closest challenge was Legion (reviewed here), Paul Bettany's angels-in-an-action-movie piece about heaven's war against mankind. It was surprisingly dumb fun, and it was second place at the box office with $18.2 million. Paul Bettany was a little out of place, but he showed competence with a machine gun, and that's what matters.

The Book Of Eli drops to third this weekend, but took in another $17 million. So far, in two weeks, it has picked up $62 million overall. It looks like the Hughes Brothers' decision to set up a sequel was a smart one, because this one is looking like it'll turn a profit easily before DVD sales.

The man formerly known as The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, is now The Tooth Fairy. That movie bowed in fourth place at the box office, thanks to $14.5 million in weekend traffic, which isn't bad for a kids' movie starring a guy best known for his adult roles. Still, it lags behind his other kid-friendly fare like Escape To Witch Mountain and The Game Plan.

This weekend's fifth place movie is The Lovely Bones. Peter Jackson's latest CGI-extravaganza managed to bank $8.8 million in its second week of widespread release. Meanwhile, last week's fifth place movie, Sherlock Holmes, drops to sixth place on a weekend take of $7.115 million, inching it ever closer to $200 million. It'll make it, but just by the skin of its teeth.

Extraordinary Measures takes seventh place this weekend on a $7 million take in the States. Poor Harrison Ford looks awful these days, which is sad considering he looked okay just a few years ago in the last Indiana Jones flick. I think someone's been Botoxed to death, not that I'm mentioning any names.

In eighth place this weekend is the biggest slider of the week, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. The movie dropped 44% from last week, and the box office position slid from fourth to eighth. Still, the movie pulled in another $6.5 million and broke the $200 million mark for its US run, so it made the most of its popularity. I saw a kid this weekend take pictures standing beside the giant Alvin and company 3-D promotional statues, so I imagine Alvin 3 is getting fast-tracked before that youngster grows up.

It's Complicated took ninth place this weekend, bringing in another $6.19 million. Somehow, the movie has quietly grossed nearly $100 million, despite having a collective cast whose age measures in ice ages. Just because they're old doesn't mean they're not ace, though!

Rounding out the top ten is Jackie Chan. The Spy Next Door took in $4.75 million this weekend, which is pretty sad considering how much more money The Tooth Fairy took in during this time frame. Not only is Jackie not the top dog in action comedies now, he can't even sell a movie like this to the kids. Sigh. How far the mighty have fallen.

Speaking of fallen mighty, next week is Mel Gibson making a return to movie acting after a disastrous few years, from a personal standpoint. Fingers crossed that he makes it back, because I like the guy and it's not like he did anything that harmed anyone other than himself. He's back in the revenge thriller Edge Of Darkness, playing a guy out to avenge his daughter's shooting. This is the sort of role Mel knocks out of the park.

Meanwhile, also opening up is the comedy When In Rome, starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. I like Kristen Bell in generally everything she does, but I'm not feeling this movie out to be a success. Just seems like a saturated market right now. We shall see.