LOS ANGELES — The star-studded romance "Valentine's Day" wooed audiences with a $52.4 million opening weekend, easily grabbing the No. 1 spot over the holiday that shares its name, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"To have a movie titled 'Valentine's Day' on Valentine's weekend was a no-brainer that absolutely worked," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Directed by Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman"), "Valentine's Day" was a celebrity bonanza. The cast includes Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Biel, Shirley MacLaine, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner.

"Valentine's Day" distributor Warner Bros. estimated its love story will be in the $60 million range after Presidents Day on Monday. That would break the Presidents Day weekend record of $52 million set by "Ghost Rider" over the four-day holiday weekend in 2007.

Opening in a tight race for No. 2 were 20th Century Fox's action fantasy "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" with $31.1 million over three days and Universal's werewolf tale "The Wolfman" with $30.6 million.

Adapted from the opening book in Rick Riordan's fantasy series, "Percy Jackson" follows the adventures of a teen who learns he's descended from the ancient Greek gods. The cast includes Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Catherine Keener and Rosario Dawson.

"The Wolfman" stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt in an update of the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. horror classic about an aristocrat who returns to his ancestral home and is bitten by a werewolf.

Coming in fourth for the weekend was 20th Century Fox's sci-fi sensation "Avatar" with $22 million, adding to a fortune that already has made it Hollywood's biggest modern blockbuster. "Avatar" raised its domestic total to $659.6 million and its worldwide haul to $2.35 billion.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Sony Screen Gems' romantic drama "Dear John," fell to fifth place with $15.3 million, lifting its 10-day total to $53.2 million.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/14/valentines-day-breaks-box_n_461940.html

WOW I didn't think this movie would do that well. I thought it would come in second or third

but I bet in a month's time, that movie will have already left most theaters..

I want to see this because I'm a romantic, but I'm not expecting a whole lot. I love ensemble casts, but the reviews haven't been that good so far.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In its ninth round on the foreign circuit, "Avatar" defiantly stared down the overseas openings of three films from major studios, emerging as No. 1 for the weekend with $59 million.

Director James Cameron's blockbuster 3D feature pushed its record-setting overseas gross to $1.69 billion, and its unprecedented worldwide gross to $2.35 billion. The 20th Century Fox release, playing on 8,453 screens in 71 markets, was the sole holdover in the weekend's top five titles.

No. 2 for the weekend was Warner Bros.' "Valentine's Day," which kicked off its foreign run at 4,562 venues in 52 markets for a weekend tally of $30.4 million. The Garry Marshall-directed romantic comedy, with an ensemble cast including Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner, opened strongest in Australia (No. 1 with $6.4 million from 373 sites), the U.K. (No. 2 with $4.7 million from 432 spots) and Germany ($2.5 million from 410 sites).

No. 3 was Fox's adventure fantasy "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," director Chris Columbus' adaptation of the popular book series by Rick Riordan. Opening round produced $28 million from 5,800 venues in 40 territories.

Finishing fourth was Universal's "The Wolfman," which collected an estimated $21 million from 4,222 situations in 37 territories. Director Joe Johnston's update (starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt) of the classic 1941 Universal horror title (starring Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya) opened at No. 3 in the U.K. ($3.4 million) and No. 1 in Mexico ($3.2 million).

No. 5 was Fox's "My Name Is Khan," a 9/11-related drama about a Mumbai Muslim (played by Bollywood's Shah Rukh Khan) with Asperger's syndrome. The English-language and Hindi Indian production opened at No. 1 in India ($9.2 million from 1,450 screens) and generated an overall weekend tally of $14.2 million from 1,572 screens in seven markets.

Disney's "The Princes and the Frog" grossed an animated $11.3 million from 3,643 locations in 39 markets, hoisting its overseas total past the $100 million mark ($109 million).