By Chris Kavan - 12/14/22 at 11:22 AM CT
Last weekend barely managed to avoid becoming the worst of the year, but its overall $37.58 million total was second - behind just Jan. 28-30 which came in at $34.88 million. The weekend suffered from no new wide releases and underperforming titles. Next weekend James Cameron's sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is expected to blow things up in a big way, but getting there has proven quite the box office slog. And the MPAA is following suit as, after last week's huge haul this week has a lot of ratings, but no major titles, leading to an loud sigh of anti-exuberance.
There is little to celebrate at the box office but Black Panther: Wakanda Forever managed to take in $11.23 million (down 35.9%) and crossed the $400 million mark with a new $409.9 million total. As of this writing, Wakanda Forever has hit $410.8 million - less than $200,000 from passing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Maddness ($411 million) as the second-highest grossing film of the year and the biggest MCU film of 2022 as well as the eighth-highest grossing film in the entire franchise. It has also earned $768 million worldwide at this point as well.
Coming in second, the aptly-titled Violent Night, starring David Harbour as Santa - a Christmas Angel of Death - dipped just over 35% to bring in $8.72 million for a new $26.7 million total. It is still running neck-and-neck with Christmas horror tale Krampus - which had $28.6 million through the same point - but it is holding up better than thus could easily match that film's $42.7 million domestic / $61.5 million worldwide total. Given the film has a light $20 million budget, it should wind up at least making a small profit - more than a lot of films can say this year.
Things get pretty dour from here - third place went to Strange World with a mere 25.6% drop but only a $3,78 million weekend for a $30.63 million total - about 20% of its reported budget, if that. It also has just about $54 million worldwide. No matter how well it holds up in the coming weeks, this is going to be a huge miss and one of the year's biggest money losers.
In fourth place, The Menu had a 20.3% dip to eat up $2.76 million for a new $29 million total. It's worldwide total of $57.7 million means this $30 million picture will also likely make a small bit of money in the end and for a genre picture these days, that's about the best one can hope for.
Rounding out the top five, Devotion dropped 25.6% for a $2 million weekend and a new $17 million total as the war epic struggles to get off the ground.
The other piece of good news from over the weekend was the debut of Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, hailed as a comeback for actor Brendan Fraser (who is a front-runner for an Oscar). Opening in just six theaters, The Whale had the best per-theater average of the year with a $360,000 (14th place) and a $60,000 per theater average. That tops the previous record-holder in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which had a $50,000 per-theater average when it opened. Now we'll see if this follows that film or gets lost in the weeds like so many other high-profile films with big initial openings but small gains after (Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin and The Fabelmans among them).
Not having near as much luck was Sam Mendes' Empire of Light, which opened in 110 theaters but only managed a $163,405 total - not even in the top 20.
Next week all eyes turn to Avatar: The Way of Water - the 13-years-in-the-making sequel to James Cameron's eye-popping spectacle. We'll see if this can not only break us out of the box office doldrums, but break some records along the way.
While the MPAA Ratings Board has not skimped on the quantity this week, that's about all I can say as the vast majority of these new entries don't even have a release date yet and those that do aren't going to be playing in your local multiplex. But I'll give you what I've got and look forward to next week.
AMBUSH
Rated R for violence, some bloody images, and language.
BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM
Rated PG13 for some strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief partial nudity.
DETECTIVE KNIGHT: INDEPENDENCE
Rated R for violence, language throughout, brief drug use and sexuality.
THE DEVIL'S STOMPING GROUNDS
Rated R for bloody violence, sexual content/nudity, language and brief drug use.
GHOSTED
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence/action, brief strong language and some sexual content.
INVITATION TO A MURDER
Rated PG-13 for some violent content and smoking.
THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER
Rated R for violence.
THE PARENTING
Rated R for language, sexual references and some drug use.
PRISONER'S DAUGHTER
Rated R for language and some violence.
THE QUEST FOR TOM SAWYER'S GOLD
Rated PG for some mild violence, language and thematic elements.
TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN
Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving mental illness, some strong language and sexual references.
THE TUTOR
Rated R for language, some violence and sexual material.
THE WEAPON
Rated R for strong violence and language throughout.
