With another strong weekend-to-weekend hold, Avatar: The Way of Water is continuing to attract audiences over the holiday period, and is looking to claim its fifth weekend at the top of the domestic box office. After a $7 million fifth Friday, the epic science-fiction sequel’s running domestic total now stands at $538 million. It's still pacing ahead of the first Avatar, which had made around $500 million by the same point, but not holding as well.
The film will pass the $550 mark at the domestic box office by Sunday, and is expected to hit $566 million by the end of the extended four-day MLK weekend. The Way of Water is currently projected to add around $29 million over the regular three-day weekend, and $36 million across the four-day holiday frame, falling by just 36% from the last weekend. Globally, the film’s running tally stands at over $1.7 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie of 2022.
While it still trails Top Gun: Maverick domestically — that long-awaited sequel made $718 million — it will overtake the lifetime haul of The Lion King remake ($543 million) by Sunday, placing it at the number 13 spot on the all-time list. The film just overtook The Dark Knight ($535 million) to claim the 14th spot on the all-time domestic box office list.
Holding unusually strong for a horror movie, Universal’s M3GAN will claim the second spot on the back of stellar reviews and strong word-of-mouth. The sci-fi-tinged creepy doll flick is looking at a three-day finish of around $17.5 million after a $4.8 million second Friday, eyeing a solid 42% weekend-to-weekend drop. Over the extended four-day frame, the film is projected to earn over $20 million, taking its running domestic total to a hair under $60 million. That’s a solid result for a film that reportedly cost just $12 million to produce, and yet another feather in the cap of Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Pictures.
Older audiences are putting their weight behind Sony’s A Man Called Otto, an adaptation of the best-selling Swedish novel starring Tom Hanks in the lead role. Hanks recently co-starred in another older-skewing hit, the musical drama Elvis. With $4 million on its first Friday in wide release, the film is expected to hit $14 million over the extended weekend, taking its running domestic total to over $20 million. Remarkably, A Man Called Otto will have outperformed director Damien Chazelle’s star-studded Babylon by Monday.
Universal will also claim the number four spot, with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Released over a decade after the original Puss in Boots, which itself was a spinoff to the hit Shrek franchise, the sequel added $3 million on its fourth Friday, and is looking at a $16 million four-day finish. But most notably, the film will pass the $100 million mark domestically some time in the next few days. The top five was rounded out by the latest Gerard Butler action vehicle, Plane — a movie whose meme-ability can only be challenged by M3GAN. With $3.5 million on Friday, the movie is looking at a four-day finish between $10.5 million and $11.7 million. With a reported production cost of around $20 million, Plane looks like another nifty win for Butler.
The Way of Water isn’t going to come close to matching its predecessor, which remains the highest-grossing film of all time globally, but it’s benefiting from a lack of competition and genuine audience interest, which means that it will continue to perform for at least a few more weeks. You can watch our interview with Hanks here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Avatar: The Way of Water Domestic Box Office Passes $538 Million - Collider
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