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Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in "Dear John." Photo: Screen Gems

We all knew this day would come and today it arrived! After seven weeks on the box office throne, James Cameron’s unstoppable box office titan “Avatar” was finally overthrown by a chick flick! Yup, you read that right. “Dear John,” the sappy romantic drama starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried sucked in America’s women like a vacuum, not seen since “New Moon” injected a massive dose of estrogen at multiplexes last November. And not only did “Dear John” top “Avatar,” it crushed it! So in the end, the mighty “Avatar” was beaten by teenage girls – the same demographic that helped Cameron’s previous blockbuster, “Titanic,” rule the box office for twelve years.

If you read my box office column from last week, you’ll know how frustrated I was at “Avatar” continually topping the box office chart, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month. It’s not that I have anything against the film, it’s just that I was getting quite bored coming up with superlatives to describe the film’s ridiculous performance at the box office week-end and week-out. So while I’m not really ecstatic that a film like “Dear John” took over the throne in a coup d’etat, I’m glad there’s a new number one. It’s like that new car smell.

Dear John. Photo: Screen Gems

Powered by the draw of romance author Nicolas Sparks’ story, good-looking stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, and the undeniably negative influence of the Super Bowl on all male-oriented films in the marketplace, the romantic drama “Dear John” drew in an estimated $30.4 million – ranking as the second hightest grossing Super Bowl weekend performer of all time - after  “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” which grossed $31.1 million. The film, which is about the relationship between a soldier and the woman he leaves behind, attracted more females to movie theaters since November 2009. According to numbers released by the studio, 84% of attendees were female and more than 2/3 of them were under the age of 21 – a massive number. With the star-studded romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” storming multiplexes next weekend, I can guarantee that females will rule the box office for another weekend before Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese unleash “Shutter Island” on February 19.

"Avatar" Photo: Fox

Even the news of nine Oscar nominations wasn’t strong enough for “Avatar” to withstand the onslaught of teenage girls this weekend as it dropped 25% for a respectable estimate of $22.8 million. With $630 million in the bank, “Avatar” is officially the highest grossing film of all time on every major box office chart worldwide (save for the inflation-adjusted charts). It managed to break the 12-year-old record of $600.8 million set by “Titanic” sometime on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 and now sets its sight on uncharted territory – the $700 million mark. CLICK TO SEE ALL THE RECORDS “AVATAR” HAS BROKEN SO FAR.

With most men being preoccupied with Super Bowl Sunday, John Travolta’s new action-comedy “From Paris with Love” saw less than sparkling results – debuting in third place to a piss-poor tune of $8.2 million, according to estimates released by the studio. Directed by Pierre Morel, the man behind the hit 2008 Liam Neeson thriller “Taken” which also came out around the same time last year, “From Paris with Love” was expected to appeal to the same audience that made “Taken” such a runaway smash but I guess lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice. With such a poor debut, I don’t expect this film to gross any more than $17 million overall which is a bit sad since the film is actually an enjoyable, even if it’s generic, ride.

Edge of Darkness. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Also hit hard by the Super Bowl weekend was Mel Gibson thriller “Edge of Darkness” which lost an estimated 60% of its audience from last week, dropping to fourth place for a weekend total of $6.8 million and bringing its cumulative earnings to $28.9 million.

Dwayne Johnson’s family comedy “Tooth Fairy” continued to perform decently, dropping a low 35% for a weekend sum of $6.6 and a $34.4 million overall.

The immense success of “Dear John” obviously meant that romantic comedy “When in Rome” would be suffering a sophomore slump and that’s exactly what happened as the Kristen Bell-pic lost 55% of its audience from last week, grossing $5.5 million and taking up the sixth place spot on the top 10.

The remaining films in the top ten all brought in sums south of $5 million with the Denzel Washington starrer “The Book of Eli” leading the way in seventh place with an estimated $4.7 million.

It was followed by the Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges drama “Crazy Heart” which made its top ten debut this weekend after expanding into more than 800 theaters nationwide and earning $3.5 million for the weekend. The film netted three Oscar nominations last Tuesday – Best Actor for Bridges, Best Supporting Actress for Maggie Gyllenhaal and Best Original Song (“The Weary Kind”).

The top ten was rounded out by the horror thriller “Legion,” which scared up an estimated $3.4 million, and holiday smash “Sherlock Holmes,” which finally made it past the $200 million mark and became the 10th and last film of 2009 to surpass that mark.

NEXT WEEK sees the release of three high-profile and drastically distinct films: the star-studded romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” starring everybody from Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx and Jessica Alba to Jessica Beil, Ashton Kutcher and Shirley Maclaine, the long-delayed and anticipated horror thriller “The Wolfman” starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, and the family fantasy film “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” also with a star-studded cast.

For last weekend’s top ten, CLICK HERE.

SOURCE: Box Office Mojo, ERC Box Office