Director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio scored their best ever box office debut this weekend as tense thriller "Shutter Island" wowed North American movie-goers, final figures showed Monday.
The critically acclaimed movie raked in 41 million dollars in its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, according final figures from box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Adapted from a book by Dennis Lehane, the movie is a police mystery with elements of fantasy and horror in which DiCaprio plays a federal investigator probing a disappearance at a psychiatric asylum in the 1950s.
The movie is the fourth collaboration between the Oscar-winning director and Di Caprio, following "The Departed," "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator."
The stellar opening weekend was vindication of Paramount's surprising decision to delay the release of the film from October to February, a move which removed it from possible contention at the Oscars.
"Shutter Island" easily bumped last week's favorite, the star-studded comedy "Valentine's Day," from top spot.
The romantic ensemble starring Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba amongst others scooped 16.7 million dollars in its second week.
In third place but still raking in millions, was science-fiction epic "Avatar," the highest-grossing film of all time with more than two billion dollars worldwide. In its 10th week on North American release, Canadian James Cameron's film made another 16.2 million dollars.
The Oscar-nominated movie is followed by mythological adventure-fantasy "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," based on Rick Riordan's book and starring Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman. The movie earned 15.3 million dollars in its second week.
In fifth was "The Wolfman," a remake of the lycanthrope legend starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, taking a 9.9-million-dollar bite of the box office, followed by the romantic tearjerker "Dear John," an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, which pulled in 7.1 million dollars.
Seventh place was occupied by the Dwayne Johnson comedy "The Tooth Fairy" with 4.4 million dollars.
Eighth spot went to "Crazy Heart," a low-budget drama about a washed-up country singer struggling to rebuild his career, starring Jeff Bridges in the Oscar-nominated lead role. The film earned 3.0 million dollars.
Action film "From Paris With Love," starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was ninth with 2.7 million dollars.
Tenth place was conspiracy thriller "Edge of Darkness," featuring Mel Gibson in his first major screen role since 2002, earning 2.2 million dollars.
Copyright 2010  AFP American Edition
