Weekend US box office report: Shutter Island is a new high for Scorsese and DiCaprio

For two weeks in a row, we've had a different number one movie at the box office. After two months of Avatar dominance, it's kind of refreshing. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be glad to see a movie pop up to the top of the box office, but after that long talking about blue cat people, I've officially run out of things to say about that movie.

Debuting at number one this weekend was Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, together, are a force to be reckoned with. Shutter Island's estimated $40.2 million opening is the best debut weekend of both men's' careers. Shocking, isn't it? You'd think between those two they'd have had a runaway opening weekend, but no. This is it.

Dropping to second place was last week's shocking top movie, Valentine's Day. Even though Valentine's Day was last weekend, the combined star power (and people who couldn't get in to see it last weekend) kept the movie scoring at the theater, with a great second weekend. While the box office totals dropped nearly 70%, that was still good enough to bring in $17.1 million, barely topping Avatar's $16.1 million, third place showing.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief falls to fourth place, from third last week, on a take of $15.3 million. Rounding out the top five is The Wolfman, which brought in $9.8 million. Am I losing it, or did February suddenly become a huge month for movie releases? Is the January/February dumping ground of crap going by the wayside? Are we going to see big movies all year round now? I sure hope so.

Dropping out of the top five this week is Dear John, though the film still managed to pull in $7.3 million. That's a big dip from last week, unlike (yet again) Tooth Fairy, which continues to shockingly bring in the cash. While it has been dropping, it's been dropping slowly. This weekend was another 25% slide, but another $4.5 million at the box office. The film has very quietly turned a profit. I'm not sure how, but it has!

Rounding out the top ten this weekend are Crazy Heart (eighth place, $3.025 million), From Paris With Love (ninth place, $2.5 million), and Edge Of Darkness (tenth place, $2.2 million). Guess what movie is still lurking in the top 15ish, and still pulling in over a million dollars a weekend? Why, if you guessed The Blind Side, you'd be right. In its 14th weekend, the movie still pulled in $1.5 million, and just might make $250 million at the US box office. How staggering is that?

Next weekend looks to be a busy one for me. Not only will I be doing the weekend box office, as I usually do, I'll also be checking out two new releases: Cop Out and The Crazies. Cop Out is the latest comedy from Kevin Smith, which I'm very excited about thanks to the red band trailer. The Crazies is the latest remake of a classic horror movie, this time George Romero's virus panic flick from 1973. You'll get both those reviews here at Den Of Geek, assuming all goes well and I don't get shot by Tracy Morgan or infected by madness and forced into an orange trash bag biohazard suit between now and then.