Box Office Breakdown: Shutter Island Makes Kevin Smith Eat His Feelings

Not even the prospect of Tracy Morgan dressed as a cellular phone could stop the Martin Scorsese fever dream that is Shutter Island. For a second consecutive weekend the rain-soaked thriller landed on top of the box office, holding off furious pushes from new releases Cop Out and The Crazies. As we do each Monday, here's a breakdown of the top five at the box office:

1. Shutter Island: $22.2 million ($75 million total)

In this day and age—when twisty horror movies routinely plunge 60 percent after their initial first weekend—the 46 percent drop that Shutter Island experienced in weekend two is fairly significant. Despite a twist that isn't that twisty (and scares that aren't that scary), the $22.2 million gross shows that the word of mouth is clearly strong on this one. While Shutter Island isn't nearly the beloved phenomenon that The Departed was—after all the Oscar winner dipped only 29 percent in its second weekend—it should still come close to the previous film's $132.4 million gross. Apparently moviegoers like their Scorsese with a significant helping of hammy genre, something we're sure movie studios around Hollywood have already noted.

2. Cop Out: $18.5 million ($18.5 million total)

It's a tale of two narratives for Southwest Airlines' Customer of the Month, Kevin Smith. On the one hand, the $18.5 million debut of Cop Out is the best start of his career, surpassing the $11 million bow of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in the summer of 2001. On the other, his name was so thoroughly left out of the marketing campaign that unless you followed him on Twitter, you probably didn't even realize he was the man behind the camera. So while Cop Out might wind up being the most lucrative "Kevin Smith film" ever, what's the cost to the man himself? More studio hackwork and relatively anonymity? Color us underwhelmed.

3. The Crazies: $16.5 million ($16.5 million total)

This rash of horror remakes is nothing if not consistent. No matter what name is on the product, the end financial result always seems to be the same: like The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left, The Crazies opened in the mid-teens and should maim and plunder its way to a final gross of around $40 million. Cheap, disposable and not very good for you, this subgenre of films is officially the White Castle of cinema.

4. Avatar: $14 million ($706.9 million total)

With nearly $707 million in the bank domestically, and another $1.844 billion internationally, Avatar has a gross threatening our national debt; for reference, the latter number is bigger than the entire global haul of Titanic. Logic dictates that Avatar will finally drop out of the top five next weekend, when Alice in Wonderland sucks up some 3-D screens. But after 14 straight weeks, don't rule a 15th out just yet.

5. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief: $9.8 million ($71.2 million total)

While Percy Jackson certainly doesn't have legs as long as the Na'vi, his film has acquitted itself quite nicely since opening three weeks ago. Down just 36 percent, The Lightning Thief was able to hold off Valentine's Day (which incidentally became the first film of 2010 to cross $100 million) to finish in fifth place at the box office. With some luck—and a little bit of financial finagling—20th Century Fox might be able to push Percy Jackson above $100 million. Of course, that would represent just one-seventh of Avatar's gross, but who's counting?

More by Christopher Rosen:

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• Dispatches from Tribeca: Can We Talk About Joan Rivers? >