Friday saw a 70% increase in box office revenue over the previous Friday.

1. Avatar - $27M
2. The Princess And The Frog - $3.4M
3. The Blind Side - $3.1M
4. Did You Hear About The Morgans? - $2.4M
5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $1.4M
6. Invictus - $1.3M
7. A Christmas Carol (2009) - $0.95M
8. Up In The Air - $0.9M
9. Brothers - $0.8M
10. Old Dogs - $0.7M

Legendary, and big-spending director James Cameron returned in triumphant style this Friday with his first film in twelve years, AVATAR. The film earned a strong estimate of $27 million, leaving all other films in its wake. Reviews have been excellent, with many praising the 3D immersive envrionment Cameron has created, although there is a consensus that the story seems a little generic. At any rate, this is a great start for a film that needed it; touted as the most expensive film ever made, AVATAR will need every bit of box office power to recoup its budget. Cameron has been in this territory before though; any one remember a little film called TITANIC?

The rest of the Top 10 got left with the scraps in the wake of AVATAR's impressive opening. The film that fared the worst was the other new opener DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? which opened in a not-so-impressive fourth place with an estimated $2.4 million for Friday. The Hugh Grant-Sarah Jessica Parker comedy has essentially failed out of the box.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive wrap-up of the weekend box office in North America for 18th-20th December 2009.

The Top 10 at the North American box office took in an estimated total of $42.18 million for the whole of Friday 18th December 2009.