Avatar: The Way of Water dominates Christmas weekend, while the three newcomers all disappointed.
Christmas weekend played about the same way nearly every weekend since November has played--one jolly movie on top, while every other title was basically an elf.
Leading the way for the second weekend in a row was Avatar: The Way of Water, which took in $63.3 million. That's a fairly sizable drop from last week, though that could be blamed at least in part on both the notoriously awful weather that plagued most of the country over the weekend and Christmas Eve, usually an awful moviegoing day, falling on Saturday. Still, Avatar held up much better than Spider-Man: No Way Home did in its second weekend last year over Christmas, suggesting the film will rake in millions during this lucrative week before New Year's. Avatar's ten-day total stands at $261 million, enough to hit 8th for 2022 already.
Opening in 2nd was Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the 11 years later sequel to the Shrek spinoff. The first Puss, which opened over Halloween, took in $34.1 million during its opening, but the new one, whose audience was presumably largely made up of kids who weren't even born yet in October 2011, could only manage $12.4 million over the weekend and $18.5 million since its opening last Wednesday. Still, even with not-great grosses, family films with no real competition can stick around for weeks, as DC League of Superpets and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile can attest. And the next wide-release family film scheduled at the moment is Super Mario Bros. in April. So Puss in Boots could be hanging around at least the lower reaches of the Top 10 well into the New Year.
Coming in 3rd was Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the latest musician biopic named after one of their most famous songs (see Straight Outta Compton, Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocket Man, Respect). These films tend to be a mixed bag boxoffice wise, and unlike this summer's Elvis, Houston's fans weren't eager to see her life played out on the big screen. It opened to $4.8 million.
Bombing completely in fourth was Babylon, Damien Chazelle's comedy-drama about the excesses of 1920s Hollywood. Despite a cast including Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, and a massive budget, holiday moviegoers proved uninterested, as it could only scrape up $3.6 million. Word of mouth isn't great, so even more than Strange World, this looks to be the flop of the holidays.
Violent Night, the only holiday season wide release not named Avatar or Black Panther that could be seen as an unqualified success, continued its solid run, earning $3.5 million from moviegoers eager to spend Christmas watching Santa's slays. Its total stands at $42 million. Speaking of Black Panther, Wakanda Forever slipped out of the Top 5, coming in sixth with $3.5 million, for a total of $426.2 million.
After a strong run in limited release, The Whale, Brendan Frasier's comeback vehicle, did only moderate business going semi-wide, as the drama about a depressed 600-pound man and his estranged daughter grossed $1 million. Its total stands at $2.6 million, and we'll see if the Oscar buzz surrounding Frasier helps the film stay afloat in the coming weeks.
Rounding out the Top 10, but finishing below $1 million, are The Fabelmans, The Menu, and Strange World, which are now up to $9.9 million, $33.9 million, and $35.6 million, respectively.
Christmas is usually the last day of the year anything goes wide, so this weekend will see nothing new. Avatar should dominate again, but will it remain steady from Christmas, or dip some, or, without a paralyzing storm and Christmas Eve standing in its way, will it see an improvement from last weekend? And can a strong post-Christmas run help turn around the fortunes of Puss in Boots, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, or Babylon? We'll find out next week.
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