Box Office: Shutter Island Opens with $41 Million

The collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio is a success, yet again. Their new film, Shutter Island, opened to $41 million this weekend which is a record breaking opening for the Oscar winning director. Scorsese scored his biggest opening ever with Shutter Island, and this movie goes to show how successful the Scorsese DiCaprio team really is. For those who may not remember, Shutter Island was originally scheduled for release last October, but was pushed back until February of this year to allow more time and money for marketing. Clearly that worked out.

Shutter Island marks the highest opening weekend for Scorsese and the highest opening for the DiCaprio Scorsese team who have previously collaborated on The Departed, Gangs of New York, and The Aviator.

It was still a strong weekend at the weekend box office even with only one major release. Here is how the rest of the weekend played out:

Last weekends champ, the romantic comedy, Valentine’s Day, took an expected nose dive this weekend. The ensemble film dropped 70% for a weekend gross of $16.6 million for the number two spot. After two weeks V-Day has earned $86.9 million.

The third place went to Avatar (which was #4 last week) with another $16.2 million. After 10 weeks Avatar has made $687.9 million. After next weekend the film will have crossed the $700 million mark – and that is just at the domestic box office!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief dropped to fourth place with $15 million. It’s total gross so far is $58.7 million.

The Wolfman rounded out the top five with $9.8 million. Another big drop from last weekends record breaking weekend.

The February box office has been on fire the last couple weeks. It will most likely see a drop next weekend with the R-rated flicks Cop Out and The Crazies. But the week after that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland drops and should once again pull in big numbers.

Below is the full list of the top 10 earners at the weekend box office:

1. “Shutter Island,” $40.2 million.

2. “Valentine’s Day,” $17.2 million.

3. “Avatar,” $16.1 million.

4. “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” $15.3 million.

5. “The Wolfman,” $9.8 million.

6. “Dear John,” $7.3 million.

7. “Tooth Fairy,” $4.5 million.

8. “Crazy Heart,” $3 million.

9. “From Paris With Love,” $2.5 million.

10. “Edge of Darkness,” $2.2 million.

Box Office numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo