Never, ever underestimate the power of a theme movie released on the right weekend. For example, putting out a star-studded romantic comedy like Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day is a good business decision. I knew it would make a lot of money, but I didn't know it'd take the top spot at the box office with a staggering $52 million opening weekend. Pretty shocking, isn't it?

In fact, this was something of a changing of the guard weekend, as last week's favorites dropped way down and the top three spots were taken by shiny new pictures. In addition to Valentine's Day, the other debuting pictures, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and The Wolfman also raked in the dough. Percy Jackson took in an impressive (and unexpected) $31.1 million while The Wolfman took in $30 million.

Despite taking in almost the exact same amount as it did last weekend, Avatar drops from second place all the way to fourth this weekend. You'd think that $22 million would rate it higher, but I think the demand for new movies (and the fact that none of these movies appealed to the same set of moviegoers) helped dampen the rest of the box office. While Avatar still held on pretty strongly, Dear John dropped very far. The movie bled half its box office traffic, taking in $15.3 million. It managed to hang onto fifth place in a fairly crowded weekend, and that kind of huge decrease in traffic is the usual for romantic dramas like that, especially since Valentine's Day (the movie, not the holiday) took away most of its business.

Between the fifth spot and the sixth spot, there's a huge decline. From $15 million to $5.6 million big. Strangely enough, sixth place is Tooth Fairy. Somehow, this movie just continues to chug along in that $5-6 million range, weekend after weekend. Somehow Dwayne Johnson in a tutu has made nearly $42 million at the box office. Don't ask me how!

From Paris With Love also takes a big dip this weekend, dropping to seventh place from a respectable third last weekend. The film took in $4.7 million this weekend, and it'll not come anywhere close to making its budget back. In fact, it might end up being gone from the top ten in two week's time, which is a shame because I dug it. As far as dumb action movies go, it was pretty fun.

Another film feeling the heat from a big box office slump is Edge Of Darkness. Once the novelty of Mel Gibson's return wore off, the thriller saw its box office take plunge. The movie lands in eighth place this weekend on $4.58 million. It may break even internationally, but not in the US.

Crazy Heart continues to linger around the edges of the top 10, thanks in no small part to good buzz and good audiences at its limited screenings. The movie picked up another $4 million this weekend, raising its total to about $16.5 million thus far. Here's hoping Jeff Bridges finally picks up that well-deserved Best Actor Oscar this year. I can't think of a guy this consistently entertaining in every role he takes on.

Last place this weekend was When In Rome, which took in $3.4 million. The sooner this movie goes away, the better off we are, as far as I'm concerned. It won't be fast enough.

Next weekend will see only one new movie being released, but it is a doozy. Shutter Island finally gets released. After a year or so of being tormented with the trailer, it's about time that film sneaks into box offices. It's been pushed back and pushed back, but it's finally here and, word is, pretty good (our review is here). We shall see how well it rates with the US viewing public.