By Ben Miller
Remember a month ago when no film wanted to release ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? The box office is on the second verse, same as the first with the anticipation of Avatar: The Way of Water debuting next weekend. Wakanda was tops for the fifth straight week of putrid box office. The weekend total was just $35.5 million, which is the second worst of the year after the last weekend in January! Thank goodness we have the Na'vi to save the box office. God forbid studios try to release counterprogramming. Apparently, the National Association of Theater Owners agree but Hollywood isn't cooperating...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 9th-11th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 VIOLENT NIGHT |
 THE WHALE |
| 1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $11.2 (cum. $409.9) | 1 🔺 SPOILER ALERT $680k (cum. $782k) 783 screens |
| 2 VIOLENT NIGHT $8.7 (cum. $26.7) |
2 🔺 THE WHALE $360k *NEW* 6 screens |
| 3 STRANGE WORLD $3.7 (cum. $30.6) |
3 🔺 EVANGELION: 3.0+1.01 THRICE UPON A TIME $320k *NEW* 726 screens |
| 4 ★ THE MENU $2.7 (cum. $29) |
4 🔺 THE MEAN ONE $218k *NEW* 162 screens |
| 5 ★ DEVOTION $2.0 (cum. $17) |
5 ★ THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN $165k (cum. $8.5) 270 screens |
|
6 BLACK ADAM $1.3 (cum. $166.8) |
6 🔺 EMPIRE OF LIGHT $163k *NEW* 110 screens |
 THE FABELMANS |
 EMPIRE OF LIGHT |
|
7 🔺 ★ THE FABELMANS $1.1 (cum. $7.3) |
7 🔺 CHRISTMAS BLOODY CHRISTMAS $140k *NEW* 301 screens |
|
8 I HEARD THE BELLS $750k (cum. $4) |
8 ★ TÁR $67k (cum. $5.3) 80 screens |
|
9 ★ TICKET TO PARADISE $622k (cum. $67.5) |
9 🔺 THE SPARING PARTNER $57k *NEW* 13 screens |
|
10 ★ BONES AND ALL $582k (cum. $7.2) |
10 TILL $46k (cum. $8.9) 97 screens |
|
11 ★ TOP GUN: MAVERICK (encore) $452k (cum.. $718.5) |
11 🔺 ★ ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED $45k (cum. $155k) 35 screens |
| 12 LYLE LYLE CROCODILE $329k (cum. $46.1) |
12 🔺 ★ EO $39k (cum. $143k) 14 screens |
| 13 🔺 FATHER STU (new cut/encore) $135k (cum. $21.1) |
13 ★ DECISION TO LEAVE $21k (cum. $1.9) 40 screens |
On the limited/platform side, Darren Aronofsky's Oscar-hopeful The Whale opened on just six screens but managed $60k per screen. The Brendan Fraser-starring drama doesn't expand until December 21st, so they'll have to be happy with the best per-screen average. Meanwhile, the gay romance-drama Spoiler Alert expanded to just under 800 screens and barely made a dent. Neither did Sam Mendes' Empire of Light on just over 100 screens.
Next week, Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to have a $150+ million opening and plenty of awards acclaim to go along with it. Nothing else dares to go up against it.
What did you see this weekend? I tried to squeeze in every outstanding screener I had, so I watched Corsage, Babylon, Devotion, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and Holy Spider. I also made my kids watch Home Alone for the first time, which was a nice deviation from all the heavy drama.