“Dear John” rode a surprisingly strong wave of support from the fickle but fervent teenage girl audience to the highest opening ever for a movie on Super Bowl weekend, knocking “Avatar” out of the top spot in the process.
“Dear John,” Hollywood’s fifth adaptation of a tear-jerker Nicholas Sparks novel, sold $32.4 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday, according to an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures.
That’s significantly above last week’s estimates based on pre-release polling, which predicted that “Avatar” would stay ahead of the Sparks film. James Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster ended up declining 25% on its eighth weekend to $23.6 million. Combined with the $76 million it collected in 120 foreign countries this weekend, “Avatar” increased its worldwide total to more than $2.2 billion.
Read full story: The Dear John hits with under-21 females. ‘Avatar’ falls to No. 2




















