Avatar: The Way of Water easily won the weekend box office but fell short of the rather out there initial projections. The film grossed $134 million domestically, an impressive number. Projects had the film making at least $140 million but others had it between $160 and $200 million. The original film opened with $77 million in 2009, about $106.9 million in today’s dollars.
Internationally, the film grossed $300.5 million delivering an opening weekend total of $434.5 million. The film will reportedly need to gross $2 billion to break even, the original grossed $2.923 billion. It’ll be interesting to see how the film does in the “new normal” post Covid. The film doesn’t have much competition until mid-February with just Puss in Boots: The Last Wish geared towards kids and Babylon, Oscar bait, standing much of a chance of making a dent. The biggest hurdle for the film will be the increasing Covid positivty rate as well as whether anyone was really clamoring for a sequel for a film that holds records but left little cultural impact.
In second place was Violent Night which held the spot from the previous weekend with an estimated $5.6 million. It has now grossed just under $35 million domestically. Internationally, it added about $5 million over the week to bring that to $20.1 million. Worldwide, the film has grossed $55.1 million.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped to third place with an estimated $5.4 million. Domestically, the film has earned just under $419 million. Internationally, the film added about $9.5 million over the week to lift that to $367.5 million. Worldwide, the film has grossed $786.5 million.
Strange World slipped one spot to fourth place. The movie grossed $2.2 million to bring its domestic gross to $33.8 million. Internationally, the film grossed about $200,000 over the week to bring that to $23.2 million. Worldwide, the film has grossed just under $57 million.
The Menu rounded out the top five with $1.7 million to bring its domestic total to $32.1 million. Internationally, the film grossed about $400,000 over the week to bring that total to $29.2 million. Worldwide, the film has earned $61.3 million worldwide.
In comic film news…
Black Adam debuted digitally on HBO Max and still grossed an estimated $500,000 to bring its domestic total up to just under $167.7 million. Over the week, the film added about $300,000 internationally to bring that to $222.3 million. Worldwide, the film has grossed $390 million.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time added about $40,000 over the week. Domestically, it has grossed $795,348. Internationally, the film has already grossed $92.9 million for a worldwide gross of $93.7 million.
The week’s overall box office success…
Numbers have 20 films earning $152,485,273 from 23,200 theaters. That’s a massive increase from last weekend’s $37,644,613 from 32,938 theaters and 54 films driven almost entirely by Avatar: The Way of Water. The average earning was $6,572.64 this past weekend, a major boost from last weekend’s $1,142.89.
Source: Graphic Policy
