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With Avatar: The Way of Water dominating the box office for the third consecutive week, James Cameron and his blue brotherhood have a very happy new year.
The follow-up to the highest-grossing film of all time is performing well for itself, earning an estimated $63.4 million during the weekend, bringing its domestic total to $421.5 million, according to Comscore.
It is now only $16 million away from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s current eight-week total of $437.9 million.
The Way of Water became the second highest-grossing international release since the pandemic’s beginning and the biggest international release of 2022, with a global cume of $957 million after generating an additional $186.7 million.
Last Monday, Cameron’s blockbuster reached the $1 billion mark globally, bringing its current total to $1.38 billion.
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Box Office Hits
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish from Universal made $16.3 million in its second week of release, increasing its domestic revenue to $60.7 million ($129.5 million globally).
Wakanda Forever, the third sequel in the top three movies at the box office, brought in an additional $4.8 million this weekend and $7.4 million internationally, bringing its global total to $818.4 million.
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a musical biography, came in fourth place with $4.2 million and a domestic box office of $14.8 million. Internationally, it did a little better, earning $8.3 million, bringing its worldwide total to $27.9 million.
Damien Chazelle’s star-studded tribute to Old Hollywood, Babylon, which earned $2.7 million for a domestic haul of just $10.1 million, rounds out the year’s top five films.
Notably, no new films debuted in the top 10 at the box office this past weekend. However Tom Hanks’ A Man Called Otto debuted in four locations in New York and Los Angeles.
The much-discussed dancing doll from hell horror movie M3GAN made $3.3 million in its overseas debuts in France, Mexico, and Belgium.
Surpass $1 Billion
A winter storm blew across the nation this Christmas, but Pandora was pleasantly warm and cozy.
In just two weeks, Avatar: The Way of Water has already raked in over $1 billion at international box offices. James Cameron’s expensive follow-up brought in an estimated $56 million during the holiday weekend, according to Comscore.
The Disney and 20th Century film’s worldwide gross as of Tuesday stood at $1.025 billion after grossing $317.1 million in North America and another $712.7 million abroad.
After Top Gun: Maverick ($1.49 billion), Way of Water is now the second-highest-grossing film of the year, surpassing Jurassic World Dominion. Nevertheless, it took Maverick a month to surpass the $1 billion mark and Jurassic World Dominion over four months.
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Set of Successful Films
Things were noticeably cooler for several of the new Christmas releases this year. I Wanna Dance with Somebody, the Whitney Houston biography, earned an estimated $5.3 million, while Puss in Boots: The Last Wish came in second with an estimated $11.4 million.
The old Hollywood drama Babylon, directed by Damien Chazelle, only made $3.5 million over the holiday weekend. That’s a gloomy statistic, especially considering that Babylon had a broad release in over 3,300 theaters.
Babylon features a star-studded ensemble that includes actors like Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. Still, the film has received poor reviews, earning a terrible C+ CinemaScore from viewers and a 54 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating.
According to Deadline, Babylon must generate $250 million worldwide for Paramount to break even after budget and marketing expenses; this is a figure that looks unlikely to be achieved.
Comscore says the following is the complete top 10 list for this year’s domestic Christmas box office:
- Avatar: The Way of Water— $56 million
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish — $11.4 million
- Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody — $5.3 million
- Babylon — $.3.5 million
- Violent Night — $3.1 million
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — $3 million
- The Whale — $924,000
- The Menu — $671,000
- The Fabelmans — $550,000
- Strange World — $410,000
Blockbuster
This past weekend, moviegoers traveled to Pandora, earning James Cameron the top spot at the box office.
According to Comscore, Avatar: The Way of Water made $134 million in its domestic debut and another $301 million elsewhere, for a total worldwide of $435 million.
The sci-fi epic comes in third place among pandemic debuts, after only Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($442 million) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($600 million).
The first Avatar opened in 2009 and is still the most successful movie ever made. It opened with $77 million in the United States and Canada and held the top spot for seven weeks before rising to $760 million and $2.92 billion globally.
The film’s 3-hour and 12-minute running duration might put off repeat moviegoers, but it remains to be seen if the sequel will continue down that path.
“Equally important with length is pace — and the order of information and the engagement factor. As long as people are engaged, you’re good to go,” Cameron said.
Cameron is certain that viewers will continue to be interested.
“I feel like we managed to jump through all those hoops,” he added. “People seem pretty engaged.”
