AVATAR scored $27 million Friday, looking at $75-80 million for weekend?

Nikki Finke has heard from a Fox studio exec that the heavy snow falling in North America right now is affecting the initial box office splurge of James Cameron'sAvatar, which took a healthy $27 million on Friday (including the $3.5 million midnight takings) and should end up with something just short of $80 million by the end of the weekend.

Storm was in the Carolinas area today/tonight and I understand that the DC area was getting hammered. I would have to say we did get hurt in that area of the country, and I am worried about the effect in the Northeast tomorrow. Even so, this movie is getting such an incredibly positive reaction that I believe the word of mouth is just viral and those that may have been prevented from seeing the movie today or tomorrow will be there eventually without fail."

If it wasn't for the weather, Avatar would easily beat I Am Legend's $77 million opening December weekend record but as the snowstorms fall, many are keeping away and opting to see it at a later date. As much as Fox would rather have the money in the bank already, they shouldn't worry. Titanic in late 1997 opened to $28 million for the whole weekend but the "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS OR ELSE YOU ARE A CULTURAL RETARD" public reaction meant the doomed Jack & Rose love story set on the history's most famous sinking ship stayed in theatres for months, and at top spot at that, ending up with $600 million domestic - more than any other film made before or since. We aren't saying Avatar will finish with that but it's way too early to tell how much profit this film will make from a $300 million+ budget. How's the public reaction going down? Here's a nice indicator for you. Last year, The Dark Knight, after ten days in theatres went to the top of the IMDB's greatest movies of all time after approximately 25,000 votes were cast. After 5,000 votes, it was sitting at number 4. Currently Avatar's IMDB scoring looks like this... On a personal note, it is indeed the snow in the North East of England that has kept me from seeing Avatar at the newly built IMAX cinema at the near-by Metro Centre shopping complex. The cinema, which was always built with the timing of Avatar's IMAX release in mind, opened last week and has enjoyed sold out screenings all weekend, so even if I wanted to try and see it, I wouldn't have been able to. A 45 minute car journey journey yesterday took me 3 hours last night. There's horrendous weather up here and I don't plan on driving anywhere at all this Sunday. Elsewhere, no other movie made more than $3.4 million for the whole day, which of course indicates that those who did brave the weather, did so to see Avatar. 1. Avatar (Fox) NEW Fri $27M 2. Princess And The Frog (Disney) Week 2 Fri $3.4M 3. The Blind Side (Warner Bros) Week 5 Fri $3.1M 4. Did You Hear About The Morgans? (Sony) NEW Fri $2.3M 5. New Moon (Summit) Week 5 Fri $1.3M 6. Invictus (Warner Bros) Week 2 Fri $1.3M 7. A Christmas Carol (Disney) Week 7 Fri $950K 8. Up In The Air (Paramount) Week 3 Fri $925K 9. Brothers (Relativity/Lionsgate) Week 3 Fri $885M 10. Old Dogs (Disney) Week 4 Fri $720M The awfully titled, awfully marketed, awfully reviewed, and awfully looking "comedy" Did You Hear The Morgans? starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker, kind of a dream-team pairing of likeable rom-com leads, stuttered to a $2.3 million opening, about $8 million short of what Sony would have wanted. They tried the counter-programming to the guy's movie Avatar but they underestimated the pull of a 3-D epic spectacle and they are going to pay with a flop. The movie is scoring 11% on Rotten Tomatoes.