With a better-than-expected $30.5 million, Screen Gems’ “Dear John” knocks “Avatar” out of first place after seven weeks.

Once again proving that women rule at the box-office, 84% of the audience for “Dear John” were female and propelled the Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook”) big screen adaptation to “Avatar” beating heights.  A great marketing campaign involving Twitter, “Girls Night Out” word-of-mouth screenings and Facebook, all helped to make “Dear John” a major hit.

In second place with a mere 27% eighth weekend drop is the box-office behemoth we know as Fox’s “Avatar.”  With a weekend take of $22.8 million, the film now has a whopping and record-setting $629.3 million in domestic receipts and is still going strong.

Third goes to newcomer “From Paris with Love” from Lionsgate which earned $8.1 million for a weekend that saw the film hurt by numerous theatre closings due to weather in the north eastern part of the country.  The John Travolta starrer was directed by the helmer of last year’s Superbowl weekend winner “Taken,” but had a tough time living up to the expectations set by that film.

In fourth place is Warner Bros. “Edge of Darkness” with another $6.8 million in its second weekend of release against a 59% drop and a domestic total of $28.9 million.

Finally fifth place goes to Fox’s “Tooth Fairy” with another $6.6 million family-friendly bucks under the pillow and a domestic cumulative of $34.5 million for this comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

In the wake of Oscar nominations, many films added both theatres and dollars to the their bottom line this weekend with Fox Searchlight’s “Crazy Heart” adding 580 theatres and seeing its fortunes rise 54% with $3.6 million for the weekend vs. its pre-Oscar noms frame.  With high-profile nominations for both Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, this one is now in enough theatres to draw adult audiences looking to see what the fuss is all about and take a look at these great performances.

Sony Pictures Classics “An Education” also added another 686 theatres in reaction to its Oscar noms with a 668% percent increase over last weekend’s take and bringing in $915,407 in the process.

Other Oscar nominees to see “bumps” this weekend were Lionsgate’s “Precious” which saw a 120% increase over last weekend’s total as it added 447 theatres to again capitalize on the film’s numerous high-profile nominations including Best Picture, director, acting and others.  The film earned $474,156 for the weekend and is now at $46 million in domestic dollars.

Yet another “down” weekend for the industry (that’s four in a row), as year-to-date attendance slips below last year’s levels at this time when “Paul Blart,” “Gran Torino,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Taken” were tearing up the box-office.  The good news is that Warner Bros. is preparing a Valentine’s gift for the marketplace with the hotly anticipated debut of “Valentine’s Day” this weekend and another female-driven weekend at the nation’s theatres.