“Avatar: The Way of Water” topped the domestic box office charts for the seventh consecutive weekend, earning an additional $15.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was a quiet weekend overall, notable for the Hindi-language blockbuster Pathaan, which made the Top 5 and the Top 5 Post-Oscar nominations Re-releases of movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Fabelmans.
“Avatar 2” First Place North American Run has only been surpassed by the first “Avatar” and has been surpassed by “Titanic” (which held the number one spot for 15 weeks) in the last 25 years. All three were directed by James Cameron.
Globally, The Way of Water has now grossed an estimated $2.1 billion, surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the fourth highest-grossing film of all time (of which Cameron has directed three) .
“James Cameron just ticks off all the records and milestones,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “And it still has a wide-open market.”
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks’ family-focused offering Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which grossed $10.6 million in its sixth weekend. The animated spin-off has grossed over $140.8 million in North America and was recently made available for home streaming as well.
Third place went to Sony’s “A Man Called Otto” with $6.8 million from 3,957 locations. The memorable horror “M3GAN,” a Universal release, snuck into fourth place in its fourth weekend with $6.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $82.3 million.
Indian film Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Kha in his first role in five years, came fifth with $5.9 million from just 695 screenings.
“A top five performance is really impressive,” said Dergarabedian, noting that the market in recent years has offered opportunities for Indian films to break into the domestic top 10.
Following its Sundance debut, Neon also launched the Brandon Cronenberg-written and directed horror film Infinity Pool, starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård in 1,853 locations. It made an estimated $2.7 million. The romantic comedy “Maybe I Do,” starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandan, grossed $562,000 from 465 screenings. And Lukas Dhont’s Cannes-winning youth drama Close ran on four screens in New York and Los Angeles and grossed $68,143.
Many studios nominated for Best Picture also chose to capitalize on the excitement of Tuesday’s Oscar nominations with sizeable new releases. “Everything everywhere at once”, which got Leading 11 nominations, returned to theaters and played on 1,400 screens, where it grossed an additional $1 million. A24’s release has grossed $71 million domestically to date. Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, which was nominated for seven Oscars, was also expanded to 1,962 screens in North America and grossed an additional $760,000, bringing its domestic total to $16 million. And Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” also added a few hundred screens and grossed $1 million over the weekend. It has grossed $2.4 million to date. The Oscar boosts could also continue in the coming weeks – the show isn’t until March 12th.
“We’re seeing the Oscar nomination halo effect in real time on these best picture nominees,” said Dergarbedian. “The Oscar boom is back, something we haven’t seen in the past few years.”
Some of the weekend’s high-profile releases were both star-driven live-stream comedies: Netflix had “You People,” starring Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jonah Hill and Lauren London, and Amazon Prime Video offered “Shotgun Wedding” with Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Coolidge.
Seven weekends after Avatar 2, theater owners are probably also looking for the next big blockbuster, which is still a long way off. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on February 17th.
But, as Dergarabedian said, “2023 already looks more like 2019 than the last three years.”
“This is great news for theaters,” he said. “You’ve got the Oscar jump in the game, an Indian film in the top five and ‘Avatar’ breaking records left and right.”
Estimated Friday-Sunday ticket sales in US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore, with Wednesday-Sunday in parentheses. The final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $15.7 million.
2. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $10.6 million.
3. “A Man Named Otto”, $6.8 million,
4. “M3GAN”, $6.4 million.
5. “Pathaan”, $5.9 million.
6. “Missing,” $3.8 million.
7. “Plane,” $3.8 million.
8. “Infinity Pool”, $2.7 million.
9. “Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist,” $2.4 million.
10. The Wandering Earth 2, $1.4 million.
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Follow AP film writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
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