“Shutter Island” was far ahead of the competition with a whopping estimated $40.2 million over the weekend, making the nuthouse melodrama the best opening weekend ever for both Martin Scorsese (the Oscar-winning “The Departed” bowed with $26.8M) and
Leonardo Di Caprio (Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can” notched $30M way back in ’02). Paramount’s spin-meisters are now claiming “Shutter Island” cost $75 million after tax abatements from Massachussets. Even if that’s actually true, that doesn’t
include the cost of a huge TV ad blitz or the interest costs of postponing the movie from last October, plus Leo and Marty reportedly have substantial gross participation. And we’ll see just how well this flick, which has deeply divided critics, as well as (we hear) audience members, holds up next weekend. Last weekend’s leader, Warners’ “Valentine’s Day,” not surprisingly showed a huge drop and finished in a statisical tie with the 10th weekend of Fox’s “Avatar.” Warners is reporting an estimated $17.1M vs the $16.1M Fox is claiming for “Avatar,” with the sophomore weekend of the studio’s “Percy Jackson” close behind with $15.3M. we’ll have to wait for the “final” figures Monday afternoon to find out the actual order of finish. In fifth place, Universal’s star-crossed “The Wolfman” plummeted to an estimated $9.8 million in its second weekend, a scary omen for a film that’s been reported to have cost as much as $200 million.