The box office record
break the movie Avatar 2. With the Christmas & Hannukah holiday’s
officially over, we can finally return our focus to what matters most: box
office numbers! And, to put it bluntly, unless you were the sequel to the
highest grossing movie of all time, it wasn’t a great weekend for you!
photo: google imageAs expected Avatar The Way of Water came
in first place with an estimated 3-day take of $64 million with some seeing the
4-day haul as high as $100 million. The film seems to have had solid Christmas
Day numbers at just over $29 million, making it the fourth best Christmas day
take ever (behind The Force Awakens, The Rise of Skywalker and Spider-Man: No Way
Home). The sequel has also played to excellent weekday
numbers, and this second weekend take is actually quite excellent! What does
this all mean? Well, last week when the film came in pretty strongly under even
the most modest of predictions, some people were sounding the alarms. But those
numbers didn’t represent a lack of interest for the film, but rather a lack of
good seats! Avatar: The
Way of Water is something that must be experienced in optimal
conditions, and sitting in the very front of a theater with your neck tilted
straight up just isn’t the way to do it. So people decided to wait. When I
looked at my local theater’s app on Christmas Day to see how full each movie
was, it was really only Avatar that had the majority of their seats
sold. With nearly a billion already made in two weeks of release
worldwide, Avatar: The
Way of Water is doing just fine at the box office and will
continue to do so for quite some time.
Of the
new releases, the animated sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish fared
the best, although I will blame the massive winter storm that blanketed nearly
the entire United States for my prediction being
so far off the mark. The film’s weekend take was only $12.4 million while its
full holiday weekend take since opening on Wednesday is only looking at around
$26.9 million. The first film saw a 3-day take of just over $34 million on its
way to a $149.2 domestic total. Worldwide numbers are slightly optimistic as it
opened to over $51 million. Again, let’s not bury the lead: with great reviews
(including an 8/10 score from our own JimmyO), great audience scores (currently at a 93%) and a a
solid A cinemascore (the original received an A-) combined with no real family
competition until April 7, 2023 (when The Super Mario Bros. Movie is
released), Puss in
Boots: The Last Wish will be just fine in the long haul.
Now we must address the
elephants in the room: the box office bombs. This holiday season it looks like
Santa dropped a lump of coal in Sony and Paramount’s stocking as their
films Whitney
Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (which appears to be the
films official title now as I guess Sony didn’t think many people made the
connection between I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Whitney Houston)
and Babylon both
failed to launch over $6 million (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With
Somebody netted just $4.7 million for the weekend while Babylon fully
flatlined with just $3.6 million). To put that into even more perspective: both
films failed to beat the domestic opening of Cats which was released over
Christmas 2019! Both films were released to capitalize on awards season,
however with middling reviews (including a
6/10 one from our own Chris Bumbray) and only one nomination so far (for
Outstanding Editing from the Black Reel Awards), it appears this Whitney
Houston biopic may be one of those films that just fades away. Which is a shame
as I do think Whitney Houston is someone deserving of a great biopic, but the
consensus seems to be that this one was just a bit too cliche’d.
As
for Babylon,
with a reported $80 million budget and more middle of the road reviews (including
another 6/10 review from Chris Bumbray)
this one looks to be one of the biggest bombs of 2022. Having seen the film
(and being a massive fan of all the talent involved) I can say that I really
enjoyed this movie for about 2 and a half hours, but at a certain point it all
got a bit much for me. I think with some more judicious editing, Babylon could have
been one of the greatest “Hollywood”
based films about the transition from the silent film era to the “talkies.”
There is a scene early in the film that shows how silent films were made that
is one of the best scenes from any movie this year. Chazelle and his Director
of Photography Linus Sandgren (who won an Oscar for lensing La La Land) have
a unique way of using steady cams for long beautiful shots, but again, those
last thirty minutes were a bit much. The good news for this one is that it is
racking up some award nominations including 9 Critics Choice Awards and 5
Golden Globe Awards, which generally translates into a bit of a bump at the box
office. However, it would need to be quite some bump to get near that $80
million budget.
Rounding
out the top five is the R rated Santa Claus meets Die Hard meets Home Alone film Violent Night.
Even though this one was released relatively quick to video on demand to
capitalize on those at home holiday dollars, it appears people were still keen
to check out this new Christmas classic on the big screen as it finally managed
to beat Black
Panther: Wakanda Forever with an estimated take of $3.1
million to Black
Panther’s $3.02 million. Of course with Christmas over, you
can expect this one to fall fast, but that doesn’t matter as a sequel to the yuletide
bloodfest is already being discussed.
Coming in seventh place,
with a 539% rise in its week to week box office take is the excellent Darren
Aronofsky film The
Whale with an estimated $924 thousand. It is obvious people
are making their way to one of the 603 screens playing this film to see what
all the fuss is about when it comes to Brendan Fraser’s sure to be Oscar
nominated performance (I also hope to see Hong Chau sneak a nomination as well
because she is brilliant in this movie and also The Menu).
Speaking of The Menu, the
film continues its fairly impressive run with an addition $617 thousand and a
$33.7 million total. As I have said before, go see this movie! It is far and
away one of the best of the year. Rounding out the top ten are a pair of box
office under-performers with the Steven Spielberg semi auto-biographical The Fabelmans taking
in an estimated $550 thousand and Disney’s Strange World racking up an
addition $410 thousand.
Were you able to make it
to theaters this weekend or was the draw of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on
Netflix all you needed? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to take
our poll where we ask what your favorite
James Cameron Directed Film is.
With $661 million
worldwide as of Dec. 22 and swimming circles around $900M worldwide after
weekend earnings bubble to the surface, Avatar: The Way of Water is sinking in
China with only $80M during the first eight days of release. The film also
experienced a 78% attendance drop from one Friday to the next. While it may
feel as if the world is obsessed with James Cameron’s latest
special-effects-driven spectacle, China remains an outlier.
Cameron and 20th Century Studios want Avatar: The Way of Water to
be an undeniable hit in every part of the world. Still, China needed
more regarding film promotion than other territories. China still
needs to work on Covid-related issues, making residents hesitant about
occupying packed theaters. Additionally, Avatar: The Way of Water did
not crank the PR machine in China
like in other parts of the world. While the film is inescapable in the United States and Canada,
China
focuses on other matters.
Unfortunately, nasty
weather will impact box office totals for the holiday weekend. Wicked storms
are brewing, and governments recommend people remain indoors for the bulk of
Christmas weekend. As of this morning, Winter Storm Elliott has left more than
1 million customers without power, with wind chills causing temperatures to
drop between the -20 to -30 degree range.
Avatar: The Way of Water was up only 1% from Wednesday
with $14.5M for a week’s total of $197.5M at 4,202 theaters, 4% behind the
first week of Top Gun: Maverick, which received a boost thanks to its Memorial
day release. On its eighth day in theaters, Avatar 2 is sure to cross the
$200M milestone in the United States
and Canada.
Meanwhile, Puss in Boots:
The Last Wish is lapping at a two-day total of $6.1M in
the United |States and Canada
across 4,099 theaters. As for Tri-Star/Black Label’s Whitney Houston
biopic I Wanna Dance
With Somebody, the drama starring Naomi Ackie as the world-famous
pop star earned $730K from 3,093 locations. While the film’s total is small
compared to other releases, it’s important to note the movie just hit theaters
and still has time to make an impression at the box office.
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