After 13 years of hiatus, the “Avatar” sequel “The Way of Water” led ticket gross sales in film theaters, drawing near the 2009 manufacturing’s field workplace information.
The Walt Disney Co.’s “The Way of Water” added $19.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Its global total has now surpassed $2 billion, putting it sixth all-time and just ahead of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” In the U.S., “The Way of Water” brought in $598 million. Continued robust international sales ($56.3 million for the weekend) have helped push the “Avatar” sequel to $2.024 billion worldwide.
A 12 months in the past, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” also topped the box office for six weekends but did it over seven weeks. You have to go back to Cameron’s original “Avatar” to discover a film that stayed No.1 for such a protracted span. (“Avatar” in the end topped out at seven weeks.) Before that, the one movie previously 25 years to handle the feat was one other Cameron movie; “Titanic” (1997) went undefeated for 15 weeks.
“The Way of Water” has now reached a target that Cameron set for the very expensive sequel. Ahead of its release, Cameron said becoming “the third or fourth highest-grossing movie in historical past” was “your break even.”
The box-office domination for “The Way of Water” has been aided, in part, by a shortage of formidable challengers. The only new wide release from a major studio on the weekend was the thriller “Missing” from Sony’s Screen Gems and Stage 6 Films. A low-budget sequel to 2018’s “Searching,” starring Storm Reid as a teenager seeking her missing mother, “Missing” performs out throughout laptop screens. The movie, budgeted at $7 million, debuted with $9.3 million.
January is often a sluggish interval in theaters, however a handful of strong-performing holdovers have helped prop up gross sales.
Though it did not open massively in December, Universal Pictures’ “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” has had long legs as one of the only family options in theaters over the last month. It came in second place in its fifth week with $11.5 million domestically and $17.8 million overseas. The “Puss in Boots” sequel has grossed $297.5 million globally.
The creepy doll horror hit “M3gan,” additionally from Universal, has continued pulling in moviegoers. It notched $9.8 million in its third week, bringing its home haul to $73.3 million.
And whereas the recognition of horror titles in theaters is nothing new, Sony Pictures’ “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks, has flourished in a market that is been attempting for adult-oriented dramas. The movie, a remake of the Swedish movie “A Man Called Ove,” a couple of retired man whose suicide his neighbors regularly foil plans, made $9 million in its second week of large launch. It’s taken in $35.3 million domestically via Sunday.
Estimated ticket gross sales for Friday via Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, in accordance with Comscore. Final home figures can be launched Monday.
