Box Office: 'Shutter Island' gets the last laugh over 'Cop Out'

Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Shutter Island."

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Proving that Thursday and Friday's massive Northeast snowstorm put a major damper on moviegoing, the box office had a strong rebound on Saturday bringing some smiles to the distributors of newcomers "Cop Out" and "The Crazies."

Paramount Pictures' "Shutter Island" still held on to the top spot with $22 million, only dropping 45% from its opening weekend, but close behind it was the Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan comedy "Cop Out" with $18.5 million.  The Kevin Smith flick had a larger than expected 30% jump from Friday to Saturday (no doubt because the weather improved) and is now well on its way to recouping its reported $30 million budget.  "Shutter," on the other hand, has a new cume of $75 million and is within reach of hitting $100 million domestically.  That would be the third Scorsese and DiCaprio collaboration to hit that mark in a row.

Also showing strength was the horror flick "The Crazies."  The picture also had an unexpected Friday to Saturday jump (although only 6%), but distributor Overture Films was "delighted" at the results.  With $16.5 million so far, the picture should easily recoup its $20 million budget.  It's also the second solid hit in a row for the troubled studio after last October's "Law Abiding Citizen."

In fourth place, "Avatar" made history becoming the first film to gross over $700 million with a new cume of $706.9 million.  For more on this achievement, click here.

Fifth place belonged to "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" which sneaked by "Valentine's Day" for the honor.  The family friendly flick grossed another $9.8 million for a new total of $71 million.  "Valentine's Day" romanced an estimated $9.5 million to hit $100.3 million to date.

In limited release, "The Ghost Writer" continued to impress.  Jumping to 43 screens, the Roman Polanski thriller cracked the top 20 and made $870,000 for a potent $20,233 average.  To date, the Berlin Film Festival winner has no made $1.129 million.  

Another encouraging debut came from Best Foreign Language Film nominee "A Prophet." The French drama found $170,000 on just 9 screens for an impressive $18,889 average.

Next weekends openers include Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" and another Overture release, "Brooklyn's Finest."

Final weekend receipts are released on Monday.