The “Avatar” sequel has surpassed $2 billion worldwide and has enjoyed the longest streak at the box office since the original
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water topped box office sales for the sixth straight weekend, becoming the first film since 2009’s Avatar to have such a lasting dominance at the box office.
The Walt Disney Co.’s “The Way of Water” added $19.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters as of Sunday, according to the studio’s estimates. Its global total has now surpassed $2 billion, ranking sixth all-time and just ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Domestically, The Way of Water costs up to $598 million. Continued strong international sales ($56.3 million for the weekend) have helped the Avatar sequel climb to $2.024 billion worldwide.
A year ago, Spider-Man: No Way Home also topped the box office for six weekends, but did so for a span of seven weeks. You have to go back to Cameron’s original Avatar to find a film that has stayed at #1 for so long. (“Avatar” eventually ended at seven weeks.) Before that, the only film in the last 25 years to achieve that feat was another Cameron film; Titanic (1997) went unbeaten for 15 weeks.
The Way of Water has now achieved a goal that Cameron set himself for the very expensive sequel. Prior to its release, Cameron said becoming “the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” was “your breakeven point.”
Box office dominance for The Way of Water was aided in part by a lack of formidable challengers. The only major studio release this weekend was thriller Missing from Sony’s Screen Gems and Stage 6 Films. Missing is a low-budget sequel to 2018’s Searching starring Storm Reid as a teenage girl searching for her missing mother. “Missing” takes place on computer screens. The $7 million budget film debuted at $9.3 million.
January is usually a slow time in theaters, but a handful of strong-performing holdovers have helped prop up sales.
Though it didn’t get off to a great start in December, Universal Pictures’ Puss in Boots: The Last Wish had long legs as one of the few family options in theaters last month. In its fifth week, it ranked second with $11.5 million domestically and $17.8 million overseas. The Puss in Boots sequel has grossed $297.5 million worldwide.
The scary-doll horror hit M3gan, also from Universal, has also continued to attract moviegoers. It made $9.8 million in its third week, bringing its domestic yield to $73.3 million.
And while the popularity of horror titles in theaters is nothing new, Sony Pictures’ A Man Called Otto, starring Tom Hanks, has established itself in a market struggling for adult drama. The film, a remake of the Swedish film A Man Called Ove, about a pensioner whose suicide plans are constantly thwarted by his neighbors, grossed $9 million in its second week of release. As of Sunday, it had taken in $35.3 million domestically.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday in US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. The final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1. “Avatar: The Way of Water”, $19.7 million.
2. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $11.5 million.
3. “M3gan”, $9.8 million
4. “Missing,” $9.3 million.
5. “A Man Called Otto,” $9 million.
6. “Plane,” $5.3 million.
7. “House Party,” $1.8 million.
8. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie, $1.5 million.
9. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, $1.4 million.
10. “The Whale,” $1.3 million.
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