The Kiwi box office had a new champ for the first time in 2010 as reigning king of the universe Avatar was unseated by Valentine’s Day and the biggest debut of the year.

Perfectly timed and targeted the star-driven Valentine’s Day opened to the biggest debut of 2010 and easily ended James Cameron’s 8 eight week reign. Collecting a mammoth $839,000 the ensemble pic displayed a muscular average of $17,000 to almost double the Pandora blockbuster.

Despite slipping out of the top spot, Avatar still managed to haul in another $458,000 to establish breathing space at the top of the all-time chart. With a stunning $15 MILLION in the bank already and weeks still to play, the sci-fi flick has already broken numerous records around the world and could be the first film to reach the seemingly impossible $2 Billion mark in foreign gross, a full $800 Million ahead of Titanic.

Opening well in third place was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief with $328,000. The Fox flick will be hoping for a good run ahead as they try to build the title into another family franchise to milk over the next few years. Another new release, The Wolfman, opened slightly poorer in fourth place as the audience continued its love-hate relationship with werewolf flicks. While teen werewolves seem to be in vogue it looks like no one was really all that interested seeing Benicio Del Toro with his shirt off.

It’s Complicated slid into the fifth spot from its solid second place last week but only lost 16% of its business, scooping up $173,000 and stretching its very respectable total to over $1.7 Million. The latest Hindu venture My Name Is Khan (sadly not a sequel to The Wrath of Khan) opened with a stunning average, second only to Valentine’s Day, to land in sixth spot. Consolidating the increasing popularity of World and Bollywood films in New Zealand, the flick mirrored the US performance but will most likely slide rapidly down the charts in the coming weeks.

Precious continued to ride the critical wave, falling a mere 9% and settling comfortably into seventh place for the weekend. If the drama manages to pick up multiple Oscar’s in early March then look for its current total of $300,000 to triple, at least. Did You Hear About The Morgans? was destroyed in its second week by the arrival of romantic behemoth Valentine’s Day and dropped down to a gross of only $81,000.

Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness also continued its quick trip out of the top ten, collapsing in its second week to collect another $67,000 and land a disappointing $238,000 total. Nine rounded out the top ten in place number ten with another $59,000 to leap over the half a million dollar mark this weekend.

The top ten again surged above 2009 levels to continue the ridiculous hot streak spurred by the monster Avatar collecting millions. Next week sees Jane Campion’s Bright Star, the Nazi epic Max Manus and Leo and Marty team up again in Shutter Island, all of which will have to over perform to knock off Valentine’s Day.