Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island blocked newcomers Cop Out and The Crazies from the top spot at the box office this past weekend. Shutter Island rode a wave of good word of mouth, dropping a respectable 46% in the face of bad weather on the Eastern portion of the continent to a tally of $22.2 million in its second weekend. The film has earned $75 million to date.
Kevin Smith's latest film, Cop Out, overcame bad reviews to take second place with $18.5 million. The film will undoubtedly suffer a precarious drop in its second weekend given the poor word of mouth, but will likely recoup its modest $30 million production budget.
Horror flick The Crazies came in third place, with $16.5 million. With a $20 million production budget, it should have no problem making a profit, and, given the nature of the genre, we will probably see a sequel sometime in the next year.
Avatar was down a modest 13.8% in its 11th weekend, taking fourth place with $14 million. James Cameron's massive epic is now the first film to cross $700 million at the domestic box office, and has brought in just under $2.5 billion worldwide. Expect Avatar to suffer its greatest week-over-week drop next weekend, when Disney and Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland steals many of its 3-D screens.
Finally, the top five is rounded out with Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, dropping 36% to 9.8 million in its third weekend for a cumulative total of just over $71 million domestically.