Shutter Island, the only new wide release opening this past weekend, debuted at #1 with $40.2 million, besting the debut of director Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-winning gangster piece The Departed, which reigned with $29.9 million. This is also star Leonardo DiCaprio’s best opening weekend as well. Paramount pushing the psychological thriller about an escaped mental patient on a remote island from an October release date to February proved to be a profitable one, leaving the majority of crowds with no other critically acclaimed flicks to catch this weekend. Shutter Island has a 66% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the only new wide release so far this year with a final rating above 60% on the poll site.

Falling 69.5% to second place with $17.2 million was Valentine’s Day, Garry Marshall’s star-studded film surrounding interlacing love stories on the title holiday. Pic’s total is up to $87.4 million on a $52 million budget. Dropping 31.8% to third was James Cameron’s nine-time Oscar-nominated Avatar with $16.1 million. The sci-fi’s domestic total is nearing $700 million.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief stooped 51% from its opening last weekend, bringing in another $15.3 million for a stateside total of $58.8 million in ten days. The book-to-movie adaptation surely benefitted from many school districts having the week off, kids flocking to the movie theater. Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman finishes the top five with $9.8 million, falling 68.7% from last tally. Its grand sum is $50.3 million, far far away from its budget of $150 million. That must hurt, Universal. 2010 isn’t starting off too well for you, is it?

Out of the top five-

• The only other notable release this weekend was Roman Polanski’s controversial The Ghost Writer, about a ghostwriter for a bygone U.K. prime minister who discovers that his client is guilty of war crimes. Polanski, currently under house arrest for allegedly having relations with a minor in 1977, won best director for Writer, starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, at the Berlin Film Festival over the weekend. The Silver Bear-winning drama opened with $179,000 on only two screens in New York and two in Los Angeles.
• Writer-director Julio DePietro’s poorly received romantic-comedy The Good Guy, starring Alexis Bledel, debuted on nine screens and opened with $36,200.
• Opening at last year’s Berlinale and playing at numerous festivals since then, Mitchell Lichtenstein’s drama Happy Tears, following two sisters who come back home to nurse their sick father back to health, finally opened wide around the U.S. this weekend, managing $14,000 on 15 screens.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. 1. Shutter Island…$40.2 million
2. 2. Valentine’s Day…$17.2 million
3. 3. Avatar…$16.1 million
4. 4. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief…$15.3 million
5. 5. The Wolfman…$9.8 million
6. 6. Dear John…$7.3 million
7. 7. Tooth Fairy…$4.5 million
8. 8. Crazy Heart…$3 million
9. 9. From Paris with Love…$2.5 million
10. 10. Edge of Darkness…$2.2 million