Sci-fi saga Avatar gets phenomenal start

US director James Cameron's newest film Avatar filled the cinema cash registers this weekend with a $73-million take that put it way in the lead at the box office.

US director James Cameron's newest film Avatar filled the cinema cash registers this weekend with a $73-million take that put it way in the lead at the box office.

The futuristic science fiction epic, shown with new 3D technology that was 12 years in the making, thus took in about a quarter of its production costs estimated at $250 to 300 million.

Cameron's previous phenomenal success was Titanic. A record December snowstorm that has shut down roads and commercial firms across most of the East Coast could have eaten into the potential take, Hollywood experts said.

Disney's animated film The Princess and the Frog dropped to second place from first place last week, with $12.2 million, followed by: The Blind Side ($10 million); Did You Hear About the Morgans? ($7 million); The Twilight Saga: New Moon, ($4.3 million); the Nelson Mandela biopic, Invictus, ($4.2 million); A Christmas Carol (2009) ($3.4 million); Up in the Air with George Clooney ($3.1 million); Brothers ($2.6 million); and Old Dogs ($2.3 million).