Bad Weather Not Enough To Keep ‘Avatar’ Sequel From Earning $63 Million Over Holiday Weekend

Theaters saw the second worst holiday weekend since 2020 due to extreme weather forcing much of the country to stay home. The three big releases this weekend, Babylon, Puss in Boots: Last Wish, and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, all underperformed at the box office, all underperformed, due in large part to the weather. However, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water led the way for the second weekend in row, pulling in nearly $64 million. The film is on track to pull in over $1 billion, which only Jurassic World: Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick have managed to do this year.

Dreamworks pulled in a respectable $17.5 million with its Puss in Boots sequel, earning itself a second place for the weekend. The film earned a CinemaScore grade of “A” and is expected to continue to do well, projected to reach another $6.8 million by the end of Monday.

The weekend’s biggest disappointment is, without a doubt, Paramount’s Babylon, which earned a measly $3.6 million for the weekend. The film, directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, had a budget of nearly $80 million and clocks in at over hours. Unfortunately, the long runtime and poor reviews led viewers to skip the film.

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped to sixth place this week, earning a modest $3.5 million. Overall, the film has pulled in nearly $800 million globally and $427 million domestically, projected to hit $1 billion in earnings soon.

While The Way of Water was able to pull in a better-than-expected weekend, overall ticket sales were almost as low as they were in 2020 and the second lowest overall since 2002. As a result, theaters and studios will have to make do with fewer releases and bad weather as they end the year.

Here are the top 10 for the weekend (domestic):

1. Avatar: The Way of Water // Gross $64m // Total Gross $261,681,686
2. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish // Gross $12,420,00 // Total Gross $18,522,855
3. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody // Gross – $4,765,00 / Total Gross – $4,765,00
4. Babylon – Gross – $3,600,00 / Total Gross – $3,600,00
5. Violent Night // Gross – $ 3,530,000 / Total Gross – $41,998,461
6. Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever // Gross – $3,500,000 / Total Gross – $426,155,401
7. The Whale // Gross – $1,008,819 / Total Gross – $2,566,763
8. The Fabelmans // Gross – $750,000 / Total Gross – $9,924,456
9. The Menu // Gross – $680,000 / Total Gross – $33,859,843
10. Strange World // Gross – $430,000 / Total Gross – $35,619,242

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