‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Crosses $1 Billion Worldwide In The Week And Is Headed Past $400 million Domestic Over New Year’s Weekend
As we head into the new year,Avatar: The Way of Watercontinues its dominance with no sign of slowing down yet. It crossed $1 billion worldwide this week, making it one of just six films ever to hit the ten digits in the first two weeks of its release, and at $1.03 billion it is already the year’s second highest grossing film and the third highest grossing of the 2020s. On the domestic front, the 12 day cume is $317 million, and though the extreme weather and low-grossing Christmas Eve holiday took a chunk out of the second weekend gross, the final numbers actually grew considerably from the estimates reported Sunday. It’s still too early to say whether the box office onThe Way of Waterwill, likeJames Cameron’slast two filmsAvatarandTitanic,be another one for the record books, but the strong performance through the holidays so far indicates that we can’t yet rule it out.
TWOWgrossed $32.3 million Monday and $24.1 million Tuesday, ahead of the respective Monday ($24.7 million) and Tuesday ($21.3 million) last December forSpider-Man: No Way Home($21.3 million), which is the third highest grossing film of all time domestically with $805 million in its original run. The MCU film had a second weekend (with Christmas on Saturday) of $84.5 million, ahead ofAvatar 2’ssecond weekend of $63.3 million, and a third weekend (with New Year’s Day on Saturday) of $56 million. It’s no sure shot, but it wouldn’t be a shock forThe Way of Waterto match or beat that this weekend, especially given that the firstAvatarwas down just 9.4% in its third weekend with a gross of $68.5 million (note thatAvatarhad the advantage of not having the relatively low-grossing New Year’s Eve holiday fall over the weekend).
Looking at the box office ofRogue One: A Star Wars Story(which released the same date asAvatar: TWOWin 2016 when the calendar lined up exactly with this December, making it a good point of comparison on a day-by-day and weekend-by-weekend basis particularly through the holiday season), it followed its $64 million second weekend, marginally higher thanAvatar 2’s,with a $32.1 million Monday and $22.5 Tuesday, both marginally lower thanAvatar 2’s.Rogue Onehad a third weekend of $49.6 million (a 23% drop), whichTWOWshouldn’t have trouble meeting and likely exceeding, even as the winter storm continues to rage.TWOWis holding stronger thanRogue One,which opened 16% better thanTWOW($155 million compared to $134 million) but had a 12 day cume just 7.3% ahead ($341 million compared to $317 million), and that’s withTWOW’sgross being held back by the storm. Whether or notAvatar 2can pull ahead ofRogue Onethis weekend, it will end its third weekend over $400 million, and it will soon become the year’s second highest domestic grosser (currentlyBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverwith $430 million, though that number rises daily).
BeyondAvatar 2,there is unfortunately little action at the box office, andPuss in Boots: The Last Wishis the only other title to even have a chance of going above $10 million this weekend. The animated sequel has a soft $32.7 million to date, but it looks to hold well and its Monday ($6.8 million) and Tuesday ($6.7 million) grosses actually improved from the Christmas Sunday gross ($5.8 million). Considering the strong word of mouth (A CinemaScore), the drop this weekend should be negligible from last weekend’s $12.4 million cume, as seen last year whenSing 2dropped 9.7% in its second weekend. It could even improve in its second weekend, which isn’t unusual for family films released in mid-to-late December (the first Sing grew 22% in its second weekend after it released on the same date asThe Last Wishin 2016 when the calendar matched this year, making it a good comp). Though the seven day cume is 40% behind that ofSing 2,the Monday and Tuesday grosses average at just 11% behind those ofSing 2,so it could continue to play catch-up to some extent.
As for something new on the menu this weekend, New Yorkers and Angelinos will be able to seeA Man Called Otto,theTom Hanksstarring adaptation of the novelA Man Called Ovewhich had a Swedish adaptation of the same name in 2015. The well reviewed (72% on Rotten Tomatoes, though only 32 reviews are in so far) dramedy expands nationwide over the next two weekends.
TWOWgrossed $32.3 million Monday and $24.1 million Tuesday, ahead of the respective Monday ($24.7 million) and Tuesday ($21.3 million) last December forSpider-Man: No Way Home($21.3 million), which is the third highest grossing film of all time domestically with $805 million in its original run. The MCU film had a second weekend (with Christmas on Saturday) of $84.5 million, ahead ofAvatar 2’ssecond weekend of $63.3 million, and a third weekend (with New Year’s Day on Saturday) of $56 million. It’s no sure shot, but it wouldn’t be a shock forThe Way of Waterto match or beat that this weekend, especially given that the firstAvatarwas down just 9.4% in its third weekend with a gross of $68.5 million (note thatAvatarhad the advantage of not having the relatively low-grossing New Year’s Eve holiday fall over the weekend).
Looking at the box office ofRogue One: A Star Wars Story(which released the same date asAvatar: TWOWin 2016 when the calendar lined up exactly with this December, making it a good point of comparison on a day-by-day and weekend-by-weekend basis particularly through the holiday season), it followed its $64 million second weekend, marginally higher thanAvatar 2’s,with a $32.1 million Monday and $22.5 Tuesday, both marginally lower thanAvatar 2’s.Rogue Onehad a third weekend of $49.6 million (a 23% drop), whichTWOWshouldn’t have trouble meeting and likely exceeding, even as the winter storm continues to rage.TWOWis holding stronger thanRogue One,which opened 16% better thanTWOW($155 million compared to $134 million) but had a 12 day cume just 7.3% ahead ($341 million compared to $317 million), and that’s withTWOW’sgross being held back by the storm. Whether or notAvatar 2can pull ahead ofRogue Onethis weekend, it will end its third weekend over $400 million, and it will soon become the year’s second highest domestic grosser (currentlyBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverwith $430 million, though that number rises daily).
BeyondAvatar 2,there is unfortunately little action at the box office, andPuss in Boots: The Last Wishis the only other title to even have a chance of going above $10 million this weekend. The animated sequel has a soft $32.7 million to date, but it looks to hold well and its Monday ($6.8 million) and Tuesday ($6.7 million) grosses actually improved from the Christmas Sunday gross ($5.8 million). Considering the strong word of mouth (A CinemaScore), the drop this weekend should be negligible from last weekend’s $12.4 million cume, as seen last year whenSing 2dropped 9.7% in its second weekend. It could even improve in its second weekend, which isn’t unusual for family films released in mid-to-late December (the first Sing grew 22% in its second weekend after it released on the same date asThe Last Wishin 2016 when the calendar matched this year, making it a good comp). Though the seven day cume is 40% behind that ofSing 2,the Monday and Tuesday grosses average at just 11% behind those ofSing 2,so it could continue to play catch-up to some extent.
As for something new on the menu this weekend, New Yorkers and Angelinos will be able to seeA Man Called Otto,theTom Hanksstarring adaptation of the novelA Man Called Ovewhich had a Swedish adaptation of the same name in 2015. The well reviewed (72% on Rotten Tomatoes, though only 32 reviews are in so far) dramedy expands nationwide over the next two weekends.
