DiCaprio and Scorsese set career highs with 'Shutter Island's' $40 million weekend

Don't freak Leo, it's just a record-setting opening for "Shutter Island." It's a good thing.  We swear.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are now a record-setting combination at the box office. Their latest collaboration, the long-delayed "Shutter Island," opened to $40 million this weekend and its the biggest opening weekend in the careers of both men.  It's hard to believe considering he stared in "Titanic," but DiCaprio's previous top opener was "Catch Me If You Can" with only $30 million.  Scorsese easily eclipsed his career high of $26 million for "The Departed."  "Island," on the the other hand, has had mixed word of mouth from audiences.  It will be curious to see if the picture can make to the magic $100 million mark.

Falling hard like a bad romance to the second spot was Warner Bros.' "Valentine's Day."  The ensemble rom com dropped a stunning 69% grossing only $17.1 for a new total of $87.4 million.  Considering it only cost $52 million to produce, Warner Bros. can more than live with the steep drop considering it's still a lock to pass $100 million and will provide many profitable returns.

In third place was "Avatar" with another $16.1 million.  The Oscar contender has been remarkable in reaching an all-time record U.S. gross of $687.8 million so far and only has two more weeks before "Alice in Wonderland" shows up to gobble up its 3-D and IMAX screens.  Can it eventually hit $750 million?  Don't discount it.

One of the few family films in theaters, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," came in fourth with $15.3 million and a new domestic total of $58.7 million. That was a lot better than last week's other big opener, "The Wolfman," which fell 68% grossing only $9.8 million for the fifth slot.  The expensive event flick has now grossed $50.3 million to date and will have to hope for strong overseas numbers to even approach breaking even.  If not, it will be a huge write off for Universal Pictures.

Opening in limited release, Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" did a spectacular $179,000 in only 4 theaters in New York and Los Angeles for an impressive $44,750 per screen.  The thriller won Best Director this weekend at the Berlin Film Festival and Summit Entertainment plans on expanding it around the country over the upcoming weeks.

Final box office results are released on Monday.