By Chris Kavan - 12/29/22 at 07:05 PM CT
With the MPAA bidding a fond farewell to 2022 - and taking a break, the box office is the only focus and that focus is squarely on Avatar: The Way of Water which had no problem topping the weekend and, even more impressive, has already topped $1 billion global after its performance. The other releases, however, were given a lump of coal with Damien Chazelle's star-studded golden age Hollywood epic, Babylon, becoming the latest big bet to bomb.
It was another exceptional weekend for Avatar: The Way of Water as James Cameron's long-awaited sequel took full advantage of holiday with a $63.33 million weekend (down 52.8%) and added an additional $32.2 million on Monday - raising its domestic total to $293.2 million. Things may have been even better for the film (and the rest of the box office) had a good chunk of the nation not been dealing with a massive winter storm. The eleven day total is the fourth best of the year, just narrowly behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's $294 million total, as well as Multiverse of Madness ($297 million) and the year's reigning champion Top Gun: Maverick ($308 million). Still, at this point, Way of Water looks to be able to top both MCU films and could even give Maverick a run for its title. It also held strong on the international front with a 42% dip overall and great holds in South Korea and France, where it dipped less than 7%. Even in China, where it fell 50% in the midst of a major Covid outbreak, it still managed to top $100 million. It had $881 million by the weekend and, as of this writing, has topped the $1 billion mark, becoming the second-highest grossing film of the year behind Maverick's $1.489 billion. It should top that total soon enough and Cameron's predictions of $2 billion to break even may not be out of reach in the end. We'll see how it plays though another holiday weekend, but Way of Water is still looking like it will easily dominate - and probably will do so throughout January.
While Way of Water was a bright, shining beacon, not much could be said for the rest of the box office. The only other film to even hit double-digits was Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which posted a $12.42 million weekend and an extra $6.82 million on Monday for a $26.1 million debut. That is well below the Christmas opening of Sing 2, which had $47 million after its six-day opening as well as below the $34.1 million opening of the original Puss in Boots. All is not doom and gloom, however, as the film did receive a fantastic 95% Fresh rating as well as a solid "A" Cinemascore from audiences. With no other family-centric films on the near horizon, at least Last Wish should have a decent run ahead of it and at a more modest $90 million budget, won't be an outright disaster like Strange World (which has barely broken the $35 million mark at this point). Hope is this proves to have legs like The Bad Guys and DC League of Super-Pets, both of which opened relatively small but went on to earn over $90 million. At this point the film is already at $80 million worldwide, so it just needs a little extra push to at least find itself in the black.
Coming in third was the Whitney Houston biopic, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which tallied a $4.76 million weekend and $6.75 million after Monday. While that is a rocky start for the $40 million picture an "A" Cinemascore may hopefully give it some legs even if critics weren't nearly as impressed as it sits at 44% Rotten. It's going to need some kind of push as its $2 million international numbers won't help it out much.
The biggest disappointment of the weekend belongs to Damien Chazelle's Babylon which, despite an all-star cast including Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire and Diego Calva (among others) landed with a thud at just $3.6 million and a mere $1.25 million on Monday for a total of under $5 million. That's worse than the opening for the likewise beleaguered Amsterdam (also a star-studded affair featuring Margot Robbie that missed the mark), which had a $6.4 million debut. The film that explores the golden age of Hollywood - warts, drugs, sex and all - didn't impress critics with a 55% Rotten nor audiences, who thumbed their nose at the 3 hour-plus film with a poor "C+" Cinemascore. While there is some hope international markets may be more kind - with an $80 million budget, it's going to be an uphill battle and more than likely will be another dud.
Rounding out the top five was the Santa-on-a-bad-guy-killing-spree Violent Night, which just managed to top Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with a $3.5 million weekend and, including Monday, a domestic total of just over $43 million with a worldwide total at $68 million.
Don't feel too bad for Wakanda Forever as the film passed the $800 million worldwide milestone over the weekend as well.
In the specialty box office, The Whale expanded to over 600 theaters but its $1 million weekend means, like so many other adult-driven awards hopefuls this year, couldn't connect to a wider audience.
As the new year approaches, the only major film is the Tom Hanks grump old man feel-good film A Man Called Otto (a remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove), which is having just a limited release. Here's to another year of films great and small and a continued return to normalcy.
