Releases roundup: Can anything usurp Avatar?

Avatar continues to dominate the charts — but nothing lasts forever and this Friday sees three new titles including comedies Alliance’s Youth in Revolt and Universal’s Leap Year and the heavily hyped Maple Pictures horror Daybreakers.

Alliance is opening its coming-of-age comedy on 120 screens, while The Weinstein Company has booked 2,000 screens stateside. It stars Canuck thesp Michael Cera as a sex-obsessed teen who falls in love with a free-spirited girl while on a family vacation.

Youth, restricted to persons 14 years and older in Ontario, will likely court more teen and male audiences versus the female-aimed Leap Year, from Universal, which bows on 2,400 screens in North America. It follows a woman’s plans to propose to her boyfriend on Feb. 29, as part of an Irish tradition, and stars Amy Adams. Leap Year carries a friendlier PG-rating.

Meanwhile, Maple and Lionsgate are banking on the popularity of vampires with Daybreakers, opening on 200 and 2,400 screens in Canada and the U.S., respectively. Set in 2019, the Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe-starrer follows a plague that has transformed nearly every human into a vampire, resulting in a dwindling blood supply.