“Avatar: The Way of Water” claimed the No. 1 spot on the North American home field workplace charts for the seventh weekend in a row with an extra $15.7 million, in response to studio estimates on Sunday.
It was a quiet weekend total, notable largely for the Hindi language blockbuster “Pathaan” that broke into the highest 5 and the post-Oscar nominations rereleases of movies like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “The Fabelmans.”
“Avatar 2’s” first-place North American run has solely been matched by the primary “Avatar,” and, previously 25 years, bested by “Titanic” (which stayed in first place for 15 weeks). All three have been directed by James Cameron.
Globally, “The Way of Water” has now grossed an estimated $2.1 billion, passing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” to turn out to be the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time (of which Cameron has directed three).
“James Cameron just keeps ticking off all the records and milestones,” mentioned Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “And it’s still got a wide-open marketplace.”
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks’ family-oriented providing “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish,” which made $10.6 million in its sixth weekend. The animated spinoff has earned over $140.8 million in North America and was just lately made accessible to stream at dwelling, too.
Third place went to Sony’s “A Man Called Otto” with $6.8 million from 3,957 locations. The meme-able horror “M3GAN,” a Universal launch, snuck into fourth place with $6.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its home whole to $82.3 million.
The Indian movie “Pathaan,” starring Shah Rukh Kha in his first function in 5 years, settled in fifth place with $5.9 million from solely 695 screens.
“A top five appearance is really impressive,” Dergarabedian mentioned, noting that {the marketplace} over the previous a number of years has offered alternatives for Indian movies to interrupt into the home high 10.
Neon additionally launched the horror film “Infinity Pool,” written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg and starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård, in 1,853 places following its Sundance debut. It made an estimated $2.7 million. The romantic comedy “Maybe I Do,” with Diane Keaton, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandan, made $562,000 from 465 screens. And Lukas Dhont’s Cannes-winning boyhood drama “Close” opened on 4 screens in New York and Los Angeles, incomes $68,143.
Many studios boasting greatest image nominees additionally selected to capitalize on the thrill of Tuesday’s Oscar nominations with sizable re-releases. “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” which received a number one 11 nominations, got here again to theaters in pressure taking part in on 1,400 screens the place it earned one other $1 million. The A24 launch has made $71 million domestically so far. Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” nominated for seven Oscars, additionally expanded to 1,962 screens in North America and took in an extra $760,000, bringing its home whole to $16 million. And Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” additionally added a couple of hundred screens, incomes $1 million over the weekend. It’s made $2.4 million so far. The Oscar boosts might proceed over the approaching weeks, too — the present is not till March 12.
“We are seeing in real time the halo effect of the Oscar nominations on these best picture nominees,” Dergarbedian mentioned. “The Oscar bounce is back, something we haven’t seen over the past couple of years.”
Several of the best profile releases of the weekend have been each star-driven comedies that went straight to streaming: Netflix had “You People,” with Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jonah Hill and Lauren London and Amazon Prime Video provided “Shotgun Wedding,” with Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Coolidge.
Seven weekends into “Avatar 2,” theater homeowners are additionally seemingly on the lookout for the following large blockbuster, which remains to be a methods off. “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” doesn’t arrive in theaters till Feb. 17.
But, as Dergarabedian mentioned, “2023 is already wanting extra like 2019 relatively than the final three years.”
“This is great news for theaters,” he mentioned. “You have the Oscar bounce in play, an Indian movie within the high 5 and ‘Avatar’ breaking data left and proper.”
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