‘Avatar’s’ reign in top 10 ends

After 101 days, “Avatar” has finally exited the top 10.

With “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Alice in Wonderland” taking nearly all of the 3-D screens in the country, “Avatar” saw its ticket sales drop 50% this weekend to an estimated $2 million, pushing it to No. 11 on the box-office charts.

That’s the biggest decline by far for director James Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster since it opened Dec. 18 and a sign of just how important 3-D, which has generated more than 80% of the film’s box-office revenue, has been to its $740.4-million domestic run.

“Avatar’s” 14 consecutive weekends in the box office top 10 marks the longest such run for a movie since “Chicago” went for 16 straight weekends in 2003, according to boxofficemojo.com.

Overseas, meanwhile, “Avatar” will likely end up just short of $2 billion, as an additional $7.6 million this weekend brought its international total to $1.95 billion.