'Avatar' Wins the Holiday Weekend
by EG
A big winter storm and a big holiday kept thaters quiet over the weekend. Avatar: The Way of Water won the weekend as expected, but it continues to run well behind lofty expectations for the long-awaited sequel. Other new releases had even more disappointing debuts this week. Read on for details.
Via Box Office Mojo.
This Christmas weekend box office looked a lot like last year’s, with a megablockbuster (Spider-Man: No Way Home then, Avatar: The Way of Water now), leading the way, a modest grossing toon in second place (Sing 2 then, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish now), and a slew of other contenders that largely failed to find an audience. The weekend was depressed by having the historically low-grossing Christmas Eve fall on Saturday rather than a weekday (last year the holiday weekend was likewise down as the 24th fell on Friday) and by Storm Elliott which has afflicted a large chunk of the country. The numbers could improve with the actuals, but for now the total box office for the weekend is estimated at just $82.8 million, which is down from last year’s $144 million. The weeks ahead still have strong potential, particularly for the season’s big ticket title Avatar 2, but there’s no denying that the overall slate is not connecting with audiences once again this season.
James Cameron’s epic sci-fi sequel brought in $56 million this weekend (a drop of 58%) and including Monday estimates it grossed $82 million for the four-day, bringing the cume to $280 million after 11 days. That’s the fourth best 11 day cume of the year, behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s $294 million, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ $297 million, and Top Gun: Maverick’s $308 million. TWOW may pull ahead of those two MCU films in the coming week, though catching up to Maverick is more of a long shot. By its 11th day, the first Avatar 2 was at just $237 million, but that film just kept playing and playing for months to come as it went on to become the highest grossing film of all time, finishing its initial run with $750 million. Avatar 2 may not have the same juice, but we’re still looking at what may be a top three film since the start of the pandemic.
2016 was the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which also opened a week before the Christmas weekend, was the number one film. Rogue One and The Way of Water saw similar numbers following the opening day (the more frontloaded Star Wars film boasted a considerably larger first Friday), though Rogue One pulled ahead once again in its second weekend grosses, unencumbered by disastrous weather. It had a cume of $318 million by its 11th day and it finished with $532 million, becoming the seventh highest grossing film of all time (now it is 15th). It wouldn’t be a surprise if Avatar: TWOW were to catch up in the weeks ahead, but that’s far from a guarantee and would require much stronger than average holds from the film. Of course, for a James Cameron film, anything less would be a disappointment.
Internationally the film fell 42%, and in many markets the drops were negligible. In both South Korea and France, the second and third biggest international markets respectively, it dropped just 7% bringing the cumes in both countries over $50 million. China remains the biggest market, though unfortunately it dropped a steep 55% owing to the country’s Covid outbreak (take away China and the international drop was just 38%). Still, at $100 million after two weekends, it certainly beats not releasing in China, a fate that has bestowed most Hollywood blockbusters of late. Worldwide the cume is now $881 million, with $1 billion right around the corner, and it will soon be the year’s second highest global grosser after Top Gun: Maverick ($1.489 billion). The holds over the next few weeks should give us a sense of if it can become number one for the year and possibly even approach the $2 billion mark which Cameron claims is the break-even.
The second place film over the Christmas weekend is Universal’s animated Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which opened Wednesday and grossed $11.4 million for the three-day and $18.6 million for the four-day, bringing the cume to $24.7 million through Monday.
Get the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.