Nothing can stop Avatar: The Way of Water.
Over the New Year’s four-day holiday weekend, James Cameron‘s multiplex juggernaut hauled in another $86.3 million in North America. The Friday-to-Sunday tally of $66.8M marked a 4% increase over the previous weekend, a feat that is extremely rare by any major blockbuster; the norm is a percentage drop of 50% or more.
After three-plus weeks, the domestic gross for The Way of Water stands at $444.4M and its worldwide cume is at a titanic $1.4 billion. It will soon pass Top Gun: Maverick‘s global haul of $1.488 billion to become the highest grossing global release of 2022. However, it still has a way to go to top Maverick‘s 2022 domestic crown of $718.7M.
And yet, if it can power beyond that mark, then The Way of Water may actually flirt with passing its 2009 predecessor’s domestic final of $785.2M, though it’s highly unlikely to come close to its worldwide gross of $2.9 billion. That number still stands as the #1 all-time record holder.
The only other new movie to drum up 8-digit millions was Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The DreamWorks animated sequel brought in $22.5M in its second weekend (just a 17% drop from its opener) for a domestic total of $67M so far.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was third with $6.5M ($439M domestic; $820M worldwide), the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody was fourth at $4.8M ($15.4M total) and trailing at fifth was the big budget bomb Babylon at $3.3M. It’s $10.7M total over 11 days is a far cry from its $80M budget, which it won’t come close to matching.
I really liked Babylon. I know you didn’t – but I can see what Chazelle was trying to do. I really wish it had done better.