There’s no drowning Avatar: The Way of Water. Over the four-day MLK weekend, this CGI cornucopia racked up another $40 million. Last year, Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $24M in the same frame, which kind of takes for granted that James Cameron’s latest opus will certainly cross the $2 billion mark during its initial theatrical release. Its domestic total is now $572.4M, placing it at the #13 spot of all-time highest-grossing movies. #12 on the list is The Incredibles 2 which made $608.5M. It certainly seems as though Avatar 2 will surpass that in the next few weeks. Some are even betting that ultimately this will top the take of Titanic with its $659.3M haul.
This is the first time in recent memory that all five movies in the Top Five earned in the double-digit millions, making this one of the best weekends in quite a while.
Once again, landing at #2 is the low-budget Blumhouse horror movie M3gan. Earning $18.2M in its second weekend, it dropped just 40% from last weekend, which is fantastic for a horror picture. Hell, that’s actually fantastic for ANY movie! Once again, this flick was made for $12M!
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish dropped only 1% from last weekend. Over this holiday frame, it earned $19M. It is trailing the performance of the first Puss in Boots, but it’s still doing pretty stellar.
It also needs to be pointed out that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is ALREADY available digitally, so its strength in actual cinemas is extra impressive.
And along those same lines, the Tom Hanks vehicle, A Man Called Otto, is also over-indexing. It has opened wider and like Top Gun: Maverick, it is playing extremely well in the “heartland.” This drama is not playing that well in New York and Los Angeles, where it originally opened exclusively, but is tapping into the more conservative southern and midwestern crowd. Never underestimate the appeal of Tom Hanks!
Though it’s been in limited release, this still counts as A Man Called Otto‘s third weekend and it raked in an additional $15.3M, bringing its domestic running total to $21.5M.
Only one new movie cracked the Top Five this weekend — Plane, Gerard Butler’s latest low-budget action flick. Butler has carved out a niche for himself, headlining straight action pics with little bells and whistles. Usually, these projects are aimed at the foreign market where such fare plays better than in the U.S., but over the years, they have found a following domestically.
Plane is rather surprisingly clicking in the U.S. Its Rotten Tomatoes critical score is 74%, which isn’t glowing, but is pretty good for a “no-brainer” action entry. Audiences are reacting much more positively, with its RT-certified audience score resting at 95%. Via CinemaScore, exiting viewers gave it a B+.
Ultimately, over four days, it took in $12M.
Top Five:
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- Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney) – 3-day $31.1M/ 4-day $40.6/ Total $572.4M/ Wk 5
- M3GAN (Universal) – 3-day $17.9M/ 4-day $21.2M/ $59.8M / Wk 2
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Universal) – 3-day $13.4/ 4-day $17.3M/ Total $110.2M/ Wk 4
- A Man Called Otto (Sony) – 3-day $12.65M/ 4-day $15M/ Total $21.5M/ Wk 3
- Plane (Lionsgate) – 3-day $10M/ 4-day $12M/ Wk 1
Once again, there really isn’t much opening next weekend, but check back to see if any surprises pop up.
