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The story of the hour is that after winning the weekend box office for seven weeks in a row and after setting some big-time records, the reign of Avatar is over. Dear John won the weekend with an unofficial haul of $32.4 million compared to $23 million for Avatar.

Basically it was all over but the shouting as of Friday when Dear John hauled in over $13.8 million, easily crushing Avatar with $6.1 million. No way the blue folks from Pandora were going to overcome that. The Saturday and Sunday numbers ended up being pretty even, though.

Overall, I’m not surprised that Avatar ended up with the haul that it did this weekend — I’m just surprised that it was Dear John, of all movies, that wound up ending its reign at the top. I would have thought Avatar might have hung in until next weekend at least and then been beat by Valentine’s Day or something like that. I thought the streak would have been done for sure after Shutter Island rolled out. Anyway, it’s a moot point because the winning streak is done as of today.

I suppose people were in the mood for a good cry this weekend. Or maybe they just are looking for something different — this was a chick flick, after all. Anyway, count me as surprised at what happened. I’m also a bit surprised that From Paris with Love didn’t do better than it did.

As for Avatar, don’t feel too sorry for it: its domestic haul is now at $630 million and its worldwide haul is at $2.2 billion, and it is far from done as far as making money is concerned.

The weekend results:

1. Dear John – $32,400,000
2. Avatar – $23,600,000
3. From Paris with Love – $8,120,000
4. Edge of Darkness – $7,005,000
5. Tooth Fairy – $6,500,000
6. When in Rome – $5,504,000
7. The Book of Eli – $4,835,000
8. Crazy Heart – $3,650,000
9. Legion (2010) – $3,400,000
10. Sherlock Holmes – $2,630,000

That is all for me for now. Stay tuned later this week for another Reject Report!