For a fourth weekend in a row Avatar held a tight first place at the box office, though now that the holiday season has run its course sales are beginning to slow.

Over the weekend James Cameron's very pretty extra-terrestrial CG motion capture adventure crossed the $400 mark and surpassed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the top selling movie released in 2009. Thanks to truly hefty sales abroad the film is also the second highest internationally grossing movie of all time.

Domestically, however, the film is beginning to slip and at $430 million it still has a ways to go to catch up to the number two Dark Knight's $533 million total, and even further to overcome Titanic at $600 million.

The three major newcomers this weekend couldn't break the strangle hold that Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel have had on theaters since Christmas. Daybreakers bowed in at fourth place with only $15 million. Apparently America likes its vampires to be non-bloodsucking heroes with shiny skin and fantastic fashion sense, willing to shell out $140 million in one weekend to watch them sort of duke it out with shirtless pseudo-werewolves. A movie that actually portrays vampires as the monsters they are hardly gets a sniff.

The other two debuts were equally unimpressive. Leap Year and Youth in Revolt floundered in the single millions at sixth and ninth places respectively. But, since both were made on budgets tighter than Taylor Lautner's abs, both are likely to at least break even.

For the full weekend top ten check out the chart below:

1. Avatar $48,500,000  -  Total: $429,040,000 LW: 1     WR: 4     THTRS: 3,422

2. Sherlock Holmes $16,610,000  -  Total: $165,178,000 LW: 2     WR: 3     THTRS: 3,626

3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel $16,300,000  -  Total: $178,184,000 LW: 3     WR: 3     THTRS: 3,641

4. Daybreakers * $15,000,000  -  Total: $15,000,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 2,523

5. It's Complicated $11,007,000  -  Total: $76,370,000 LW: 4     WR: 3     THTRS: 2,955

6. Leap Year * $9,165,000  -  Total: $9,165,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 2,511

7. The Blind Side $7,750,000  -  Total: $219,197,000 LW: 5     WR: 8     THTRS: 2,880

8. Up in the Air $7,100,000  -  Total: $54,700,000 LW: 6     WR: 6     THTRS: 2,218

9. Youth in Revolt * $7,000,000  -  Total: $7,000,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 1,873

10. The Princess and the Frog $4,700,000  -  Total: $92,600,000 LW: 7     WR: 7     THTRS: 2,620