The eyes of the world were focused on James Cameron and his first feature film since 1997’s “Titanic” and the results are in!  $77 million for the weekend domestically and a whopping $159.18 million internationally for a total worldwide weekend take of $236.18 million.  The reported large budget for the film was obviously money well spent as the film is on its way to a potential near billion dollars in global receipts.  With stunning and groundbreaking visuals in 3-D, the film will continue to generate massive interest around the world.  No discussion of the film would be complete without mentioning the IMAX presentations and the fact that they sold out every single seat and had to add more giant screen showings to keep up with the demand.   IMAX continues to show their importance to the success of any film project that has their involvement.

At number two with $12.2 million is Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” which continues to garner rave reviews and will benefit enormously from expected huge Christmas Day movie-going.  After just two weeks in wide release, the film is closing in on the $45 million mark.

Warner Bros. “The Blind Side” grabs another $10.02 million this weekend and has become a mainstay of the Top 5 weekend derby.  A 33% fifth weekend drop demonstrates the love audiences have for this crowd-pleasing and inspirational film that features a great performance from Sandra Bullock.  With a domestic total at $164.8 million and $200 million in its sights, “The Blind Side” is one of the best performers of the season.

Sony debuted their Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” in fourth place with $6.6 million.  The film offered a counter-programmed alternative to the sci-fi stylings of “Avatar” and should perform well during the holidays.

The top five is rounded out by “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” which sees its fortunes swell to nearly $275 million domestically.  The film dropped 600 theatres this weekend and had a fifth weekend take of $4.4 million.  This was another of the major successes of the fourth quarter of the year and has played a major role in putting us over the $10 billion mark (which we should hit mid-week) in box-office returns for 2009.

Limited releases of Paramount’s “Up in the Air” and “Nine” show that interest in these potential Oscar contenders is huge.  In eighth place with $3.2 million, “Up in the Air” in just 175 theatres  generated $18,344 location and the debut of Weinstein’s “Nine” earned a seat-filling $64,308 average with $257,232 for the weekend in just four playdates.

We are poised for a potential record-breaking Christmas Day at the box-office with the much anticipated opening of Warner Bros. “Sherlock Holmes,” Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” Universal’s “It’s Complicated” and the wide releases of Weinstein Co.’s “Nine” and Paramount’s “Up in the Air.”