“Avatar: The Way of Water” topped the domestic box office charts for the seventh consecutive weekend with an additional $15.7 million, the studio estimated Sunday.
It was a generally quiet weekend, with the highlight mostly being the Hindi language blockbuster ‘Pathan’ which broke into the top five. Post-Oscar nominations Reissues of films like Everything Everywhere at Once and Fable Mans.
“avatar 2” First place in the North American race It was only matched by the first “Avatar,” and in the past 25 years, it has been bested by “Titanic” (which stayed at No. 1 for 15 weeks). All three directed by James Cameron.
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Globally, “The Way of Water” grossed an estimated $2.1 billion, passing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time (Cameron directed three of them).
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks’ family show “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish,” which grossed $10.6 million in its sixth weekend. The animated spinoff earned over $140.8 million in North America and was recently made available for home streaming as well.
Third place went to Sony’s “A Man Called Otto,” which grossed $6.8 million from 3,957 locations, while Hindi film “Pathaan,” starring Shah Rukh in his first role in five years, came in fourth.
A worldwide release, the impressive “M3GAN” horror film made the top five with $6.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $82.3 million.
Neon also appeared in the horror movie “Infinity Pool,” written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg and starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård, in 1853 locations after its Sundance debut. The romantic comedy Maybe I, starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandan, grossed $562,000 from 465 screens. Lukas Dhont’s award-winning boyhood drama Close opened at Cannes on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, earning $68,143.
Many of the studios with Best Picture nominees also chose to take advantage of the Oscar nominations fanfare on Tuesday with big re-releases. “Everything everywhere at once,” which he got Leading 11 nominations, returned to theaters with a bang playing on 1,400 screens where it earned another million dollars. The A24 version has grossed $71 million domestically to date. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” also expanded to 1,962 screens in North America and earned an additional $760,000, bringing its domestic total to $16 million. Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” also added a few hundred screens, and grossed $1 million over the weekend. It has made $2.4 million so far. The Oscars build-up could continue over the coming weeks, too — the show isn’t until March 12th.
Many of the weekend’s best releases were 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 featured “Shotgun Wedding,” With Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, and Jennifer Coolidge.
After seven weekends into “Avatar 2,” theater owners will also likely be looking for the next blockbuster, which is still a long way off. “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” won’t arrive until February 17th.
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