By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Avatar — your days are numbered.
It is just a matter of time now before the No. 1 box office movie of all-time (it has also been the  No. 1 movie for seven consecutive weeks) comes down from its lofty perch.

After a month of weak January competition, January is traditionally a dumping ground for films by the studios, Avatar is surely going to give way the top spot as movies with bigger expectations begin to make their debut.

As of Feb. 1, Avatar's total domestic business is at an astounding $600.7 million. That's $2 million better the thought to be the forever unsinkable and unchallenged No. 1, Titanic.  It's world-wide gross now exceeds $2 billion, yet another record. (All statistics are from Box Office Mojo.)

We won't have to wait for another film by James Cameron (who directed both Titanic and Avatar) to take over the No. 1 spot. It probably won't happen this week with the Super Bowl eating away at movie attendance, but after a month that included pretenders such as The Book of Eli, The Tooth Fairy, Extraordinary Measures and When in Rome, the big boys are getting ready to crash the Avatar box office party.

Opening this weekend are Dear John, a romance with Channing Tatum and From Paris with Love, an action film starring  John Travolta, and neither  film should knock off the fantasy blockbuster.

But mark Feb. 12 on the calendar, when The Wolfman comes howling. Benicio Del Toro stars in this latest version of the Universal horror icon. Anthony Hopkins co-stars in the Joe Johnston-directed film.
Avatar could actually drop to No. 3 at the box office that weekend with the timely romance Valentine's Day also opening. The Garry Marshall film has an all-star cast that includes Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner and Ashton Kutcher.

And if you want excitement at the box office, it doesn't get any better than a Martin Scorsese film. Scorsese returns to the big screen with his first drama since  the  Oscar-winning The Departed with Shutter Island. The Feb. 19 opening film stars Scorsese regular Leonardo DiCaprio in a period drama/thriller set in 1954 about two U.S. marshals stranded on an island for the the criminally insane in Massachusetts. Shutter Island also stars Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo.
There is more intrigue at the box office Feb. 19  with The Ghost Writer, a thriller  directed  by the always controversial Roman Polanski.  The film stars Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan.

Other highlights for February include Cop Out, a Bruce Willis/Seann William Scott comedy directed by Kevin Smith and The Crazies, a remake of the George Romero film about a town that goes crazy after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. It stars Timothy Oliphant.

The next day to circle on the movie calendar is March 5, when one of the year's most anticipated films Alice in Wonderland, debuts. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp reunite in this latest version of the classic children’s story.  Going up against Alice that weekend is the Richard Gere/Don Cheadle/Ethan Hawkes and Wesley Snipes crime drama, Brooklyn's Finest.

Other big openings ahead of the traditional summer blockbusters include:
Green Zone — a  war thriller (Iraq)  starring Matt Damon and Brendan Gleeson, and directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum)  March 12.
Piranha 3-D — Elizabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell and Ving Rhames star in the latest man-eating fish story. Somehow it seems fitting that James Cameron directed Pirhana 2. Piranha 3-D is scheduled for a March 19 opening.
Clash of the Titans — The classic mortals-versus- gods tale gets a technology facelift. The new version stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes. It opens March 26.