- Jeremy Kay
- defender.co.uk, Monday 1 February 2010 13.18 GMT
In at No 2 … Mel Gibson in Edge of Darkness
The winner
Avatar ruled the roost for the seventh consecutive weekend thanks to a $30m (£18.9m) estimated haul that propelled the running undivided to $594.5m. It is now days away from overtaking Titanic’s 12-year oppressive water stamp of $600.8m. Combined with the $1.45bn international tally (which passed Titanic last weekend), Fox and James Cameron’s monster has amassed $2.044bn in worldwide ticket sales. No film has ever grossed other something than $2bn. That’s nearly as abundant as the GDP of Belize. This whole thing got ridiculous a long time ago.
- Avatar
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 161 mins
- Directors: James Cameron
- Cast: CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana
- More on this thin skin
Mel Gibson hasn’familiarily starred in a movie from the time of M Night Shyamalan’s risible Signs eight years ago, and, following a cooling-off period after his highly publicised arrest in Malibu in July 2006, he returns with the thriller Edge of Darkness. It opened in helper place attached $17.1m, which is pretty good going for the reason that (a) the film is formulaic and (b) nobody knew how audiences would react to Gibson. How it performs next week will have existence the true criterion. The Australian will next be seen in Jodie Foster’sitting family drama The Beaver, which is in post-production and should have being ready in time for Cannes or the autumn festival circuit.
The loser
CBS Films’ first foray into features resulted in Extraordinary Measures last week, a TV movie that feels old and, accordingly, in its second weekend in release it was dumped by US audiences. It fell five places to 13th steady a meagre $10.4m running total. This doesn’t bode well for the drama, and no amount of angst-fuelled bellowing from Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser can save it. You have to say that Disney’s When in Rome semi-flopped in third part place. Kristen Bell and John Duhamel are not very familiar to US audiences, and $12.1m on the back of generally poor reviews suggests the film’s shelf-life will be short, especially given that the all-star Valentine’s Day is set to open on February 12.
The real story
Gibson hasn’t done much publicity for Edge of Darkness and his handlers have been extremely picky about promotional appearances. It’s easy to see why. He almost came unstuck in a recent parley with US TV reporter Sam Rubin, who commented that some the public would welcome Gibson back space of time others would say he should never go. When Gibson asked Rubin that which he meant by this, the interviewer referred to the “remarks” that were attributed to him. Leaning forward, Gibson, balancing just the right amount of menace and cordiality, said: “That were attributed to me. That I didn’t necessarily execute. But … and I gather you have a dog in this fight.” Rubin was flummoxed, so Gibson rounded off the interview by saying: “Well, I’m back. And I hope it works out. And I hope the masses will graciously accept me back.” Rubin subsequently told viewers that he didn’t understand what the dog fight expression meant until it was too late. He said that “as a Jew and a human being”, he felt offended by the alleged anti-semitic remarks made by the agency of Gibson to his arresting officer that day in July 2006, and intimated that the star had not yet made a own apology.
The future
Next weekend Screen Gems unleashes its romance Dear John through Mamma Mia! star Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum, who may be well-known from the fight club theatrical piece Fighting. Lionsgate has the action thriller From Paris With Love, starring a truly maniacal looking John Travolta, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers sporting a pencil moustache.
North American top 10, 29-31 January 2010
1. Avatar, $30m. Total: $594.5m
2. Edge of Darkness, $17.1m
3. When in Rome, $12.1m
4. Tooth Fairy, $10m. Total: $26.1m
5. The Book of Eli, $8.8m. Total: $74.4m
6. Legion, $6.8m. Total: $28.6m
7. The Lovely Bones, $4.7m. Total: $38m
8. Sherlock Holmes, $4.5m. Total: $197.6m
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $4m. Total: $209.3m
10. It’s Complicated, $3.7m. Total: $104m
