Airbender Defies Critics, Rakes in $53M

Shymalan's opus scores at box office despite disastrous reviews
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 5, 2010 7:46 AM CDT
Shymalan's Airbender Not a Flop
In this film publicity image released by Paramount, Noah Ringer plays the heroic Aang in a scene from "The Last Airbender."   (AP Photo/Paramount, Zade Rosenthal)

Add this one to the list of holiday-weekend surprises: M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender may be "an insult to anyone with a triple-digit IQ," but plenty of triple-digit IQ Americans flocked to see it over the weekend. Though The Twilight Saga: Eclipse took first-place honors, Airbender slid into the No. 2 slot, raking in $40.7 million this weekend for a total of $53.2 million since it opened on Thursday.

Twilight's $161 million five-day total puts it third on the list of Wednesday openings, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Spider-Man 2, reports the New York Times. Toy Story 3 took third place, bringing in $30.2 million for a total of $289 million to date. (More The Last Airbender stories.)

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