It definitely is a happy new year for James Cameron and his blue brotherhood as Avatar: The Way of Water outperformed the box office for the third week in a row.
The sequel to the highest-grossing flick of all time is doing some pretty reputable numbers for itself, pulling in, per Comscore, an estimated $63.4 million over the last weekend, taking its domestic overall earnings to $421.5 million. That fetches it within $16 million of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s overall earnings so far of $437.9 million over eight weeks.
20th Century Studios Trinity Bliss’ Tuk scours the waters around the Metkayina clan’s home in ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.‘
Globally, The Way of Water made another $186.7 million, with international overall earnings of $957 million, making it the highest-grossing international release of 2022 and the second-highest-grossing international release since the pandemic started in 2020. Cameron’s blockbuster had already beaten the worldwide billion-dollar mark last week, positioning its current total at $1.38 billion.
In its second week of release, Universal’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish minted $16.3 million, bringing its domestic gross to $60.7 million ($129.5 million worldwide) at the global BO. The third sequel in the box office top three, Wakanda Forever minted another $4.8 million this weekend, and $7.4 million globally, for worldwide overall earnings of $818.4 million.
The musical biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody was positioned in fourth with $4.2 million and a domestic gross of $14.8 million; globally it coped a bit better, snagging $8.3 million, which fetches its global total to $27.9 million. Rounding out the top five flicks of the new year is Damien Chazelle’s star-studded ode to Old Hollywood, Babylon, which took in $2.7 million, for a domestic total of merely $10.1 million.
Notably, no new films opened in the top 10 at this weekend’s box office, though A Man Called Otto led by Tom Hanks opened in four theaters in New York and L.A., and the buzzed-about dancing doll-from-hell horror film M3GAN opened globally in France, Mexico, and Belgium, strong-arming up $3.3 million.
