Despite heavy snow across the eastern United States, James Cameron's Avatar still made a splash at the box office, drawing in $73 million.
The sci-fi spectacular has already made more than $200 million around the world, but the debate is already raging about whether this represents vindication for the Cam-man or a disappointment given the movie's hefty price tag. But suffice to say, it looks like the King Of The World is on to another winner.
Unsurprisingly, few studios decided to launch anything against the behemoth, though Sony did punt the new Hugh Grant/Sarah Jessica Parker comedy Did You Hear About The Morgans? in an attempt at counter-programming. The result was a fourth place launch and $7 million - hardly a hefty opening.
The rest of the chart remained largely unchanged, with The Princess And The Frog ($12.2 million) and The Blind Side ($10 million) filling up second and third place.
**New Moon **slipped down to fifth, but added $4.3 million to its $274.5 million total to date, while Invictus has yet to prove its box office power, with just $4.1 million this weekend and $15.8 million total.
The only other major release was the new musical Nine, which was given a limited launch in just four cinemas, making $247,000, and nabbed a healthy per-screen average, which bodes well for its eventual wider release.