Mirroring it’s performance around the world, James Cameron’s blockbuster behemoth Avatar stayed on top of the Kiwi box office for the 5^th time, inching ever closer to toppling The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King as the biggest movie of all time at the New Zealand box office.

Displaying remarkable legs for an event flick, Avatar dropped a scant 14% to again collect over $1 Million at over the weekend. Put into perspective, the vast majority of titles released won’t approach a million dollars let alone pull in five consecutive weekends over that amount. Avatar already sits at number 6 on the all-time box office list and is sure to obliterate the current record holder within the next couple of weeks.

Overseas the Pandora adventure is about a week and a half away from overtaking Titanic to become the biggest film ever made. Few were predicting that anyone was going to be able to topple the historic epic from 1999, especially with the rise in piracy, but fewer still would have banked on Cameron topping the record on his very first attempt. Such is the momentum of Avatar it has a real chance at banking an astounding $2 Billion at the global box office, a simply stunning result making Cameron easily the most successful man in entertainment today.

Still sitting in the shadow of Avatar in second place is Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes. Performing exceptionally well and approaching $3 Million itself at the Kiwi box office, the famous detective has swapped places several times with the third place picture during the reign of Avatar and will end up as one of the most successful movies ever to not hit number one here.

Those loveable chipmunks follow in third place, scooping up another $295,000 to trail Holmes and Watson by a mere $5000. The total box office for the two flicks is remarkably close with the Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel edging out Holmes by just under $18,000. The top three have driven the box office to huge heights since the start of the year and set up 2010 to smash the record-breaking year that was 2009.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson must have really pissed someone at Disney off as his latest opus The Tooth Fairy flew into fourth place. After a promising early career with no-brainer action flicks, the former WWE superstar has fallen into a weird parallel universe of family films that strip him of his natural charisma in place of falling over a lot. Film opened strongly during school holidays though with $270,000.

Peter Jackson followed with The Lovely Bones in 5^th. Holding up well enough the black drama will be hoping for some awards success to push well through the $3 Million mark in the next week. Emphasizing the amazing strength of the Kiwi box office, four titles will surge through the $3 Million mark since Boxing Day, simple stunning.

Paranormal Activity experienced the worst drop of the top ten as it slid into 6^th place. The scare-fest is rapidly approaching a million dollars, but don’t expect it to manage much more before a highly lucrative DVD release later this year. George Clooney’s highly acclaimed Up In The Air opened strongly in 7^th place. With the second best average in the top ten, after Avatar, the drama looks to have a long run over the next few months, especially if the film can land some high profile award wins.

Another Clooney flick was pushed into 8^th place this weekend as The Fantastic Mr. Fox collected another $125,000 and experienced the smallest decline in the top ten. Rapidly losing steam in 9^th place, the terrible act of movie horror that is Old Dogs rightly declined by 40% to quickly lose any potential audience and should, god-willing, end up with a shade over $700,000. Rounding out the top ten, the traditional Disney animated flick The Princess and The Frog managed to vacuum up another $84,000 for a disappointing total box office of $592,000.

Outside the top ten, the amazing Girl With The Dragon Tattoo charged through the $500,000 mark and looks to have a shot at the lucrative $1 Million mark, a deserved total for the Swedish stunner.

Avatar looks to have a sixth week wrapped up as the only competition comes in the form of It’s Complicated and Astro Boy, the former of which should open strongly but won’t have anywhere near enough firepower to defeat the King of the World.