Avatar Redux Debuts with $4 Million Weekend

James Cameron’s Avatar: Special Edition returned to theaters and made a relatively small impact, even with a somewhat lackluster week of releases.

The new, slightly longer version of the film opened with a gross of about $4 million in just more than 800 theaters ‘ good enough for 12th place for the weekend.

The weekend was lead by new horror film The Last Exorcism, which earned abou $21.3 million and barely edged out the $21 million take of action film Takers.

The summer’s animated films have begun to fade away, with Despicable Me landing in 13th place with a $2.7 million weekend. That brings the film to a $236 million domestic total and $65 million overseas for a $301 million total. The movie has played in most major foreign markets, with the United Kingdom and Germany runs set to begin this fall.

Toy Story 3 took in just over $1 million in its 11th weekend, bringing its total $405 million and its worldwide total to just past $1 billion. (See separate story here.)

Shrek Forever After earned $180,000 in its 15th weekend of release, edging its total $238 million domestic and $455 million foreign for $693 million worldwide.