The Martin Scorsese-directed, Leo DiCaprio-starring spooky drama, Shutter Island, held on to the top spot in US box office for the second week in a row, fending off challenges from buddy comedy Cop Out and splatter-fest, The Crazies.

Shutter Island drew $22.2 million in new business, down almost 45 percent from opening weekend, but still strong enough to stay at the head of the pack. Shutter Island has drawn $75 million to date, just $5 million short of its $80 million production budget.

Cop Out, which co-stars Bruce Willis and 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan, as well as Sean William Scott, pulled in a strong but below expectation $18.5 million, while The Crazies drew $16.5 million despite having no notable big-screen stars.

Avatar held steady at fourth place with $14 million, the only other film this past weekend to top the $10 million mark. Soon the promotional items will outsell the movie tickets for the SF epic.

March should come in like a lion with the new Johnny Depp-Tim Burton collaboration, Alice In Wonderland, the only notable release of the coming weekend.

Listen for the doorbell and you might hear the click-whir of Shutter Island, the period chiller by Martin Scorsese that stars Leo DiCaprio this weekend; that’s about the only film opening big enough to challenge Valentine’s Day, The Wolfman, Percy Jackson and Avatar for box office dominance going into the third weekend of February.

Everything else is either opening small or won’t be released until later on. After seeing The Wolfman today, and viewing the preview for Cop Out, I’m now kind of looking forward to the Bruce Willis-Tracy Morgan-Sean William Scott buddy cop flick coming out at the end of February, but after that, there’s nothing much of interest until the middle of March!