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UPDATE!

Dear John, You Win. Regards, Avatar

Mon., Feb. 8, 2010 10:20 AM PST by Joal Ryan

Screen Gems

UPDATE: Final numbers on Monday show Dear John grossed $30.5 million over the weekend, down nearly $2 million from estimates, and not enough to set a new Super Bowl weekend record. Avatar's final number slipped to $22.9 million, as the big game sacked movie theaters.

________

Down goes Avatar!

The Channing Tatum-Amanda Seyfried romantic drama Dear John unseated James Cameron's record-busting blockbuster at the box office, with a far-bigger-than-expected $32.4 million Friday-Sunday take, per estimates.

Avatar, which saw its weekend winning streak end at seven, didn't get knocked out cold. It gobbled up another $23.6 million, and upped its all-time domestic haul to $630.1 million.

More on the weekend that was:

• The $34 million Dear John was projected to open with a solid $20 million or so. But the Twilight army mobilized, and the movie ended up setting a new record for a Super Bowl weekend debut.

• Forgive boys if they have no idea what just beat Avatar: More than 80 percent of Dear John's ticket buyers were females. (More than 60 percent were under age 21.)

• Movie stars who couldn't do what Tatum and Seyfried did, i.e., defeat Avatar: Mel Gibson (Edge of Darkness), Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Denzel Washington (The Book of Eli) and Meryl Streep (It's Complicated), among others.

• The John Travolta thriller From Paris with Love wasn't expected to dethrone Avatar, but it wasn't expected to open with only $8.1 million, either.

• Jeff Bridges' Crazy Heart ($3.7 million; $11.2 million overall) got more theaters, and a bounce from the Oscar nominations. George Clooney's Up in the Air ($2.4 million; $76.7 million) got more theaters, but no bounce. Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side ($2.6 million) lost theaters and steam, finally tuckered out after a stunning $241.6 million run.

• The final verdict on Top 10 evictees It's Complicated, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, and The Lovely Bones: hit; big-fat hit; and big-fat miss that still hasn't matched its $65 million budget worldwide, respectively.

Here's a rundown of the weekend's top-grossing films, per estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: