Despite success in recent years as a director, Mel Gibson hasn’t been seen in front of the cameras in quite some time. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have picked a worse weekend to make a return.

Gibson’s new film, Edge of Darkness, debuted to a respectable $17.2 million over the past three days. While that may - may - have been enough for a first place finish at any other time, the Warner Bros. feature brought in approximately half as much as that other film.

Avatar, with its $31.3 million take, is now approximately $10 million shy of officially taking the domestic crown from Titanic. (The 20th Century Fox film finally become the worldwide leader during the past week.) If the sci-fi extravaganza remains at #1 for

it’ll officially tie E.T. for that record.)

1. Avatar, 20th Century Fox, $31,280,029 (avg. $10,176)
2. Edge of Darkness, Warner Bros., $17,214,384 (avg. $5615)
3. When in Rome, Disney, $12,350,041 (avg. $5029)
4. Tooth Fairy, 20th Century Fox, $9,998,109 (avg. $2989)
5. The Book of Eli, Warner Bros., $8,908,286 (avg. $2897)
6. Legion, Sony, $7,176,375 (avg. $2898)
7. The Lovely Bones, Paramount, $4,726,828 (avg. $1792)
8. Sherlock Holmes, Warner Bros., $4,515,344 (avg. $2007)
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, 20th Century Fox, $3,997,136 (avg. $1582)
10. It’s Complicated, Universal, $3,804,215 (avg. $1815)

(You can review last week’s numbers here.)