By Ben Miller
Traditionally seen as one of the big box office weekends of the year, the Christmas box office was hampered by the devestating cold weather. Avatar: The Way of Water cruised to another easy box office championship but the entire weekend only made slightly north of $80 million.
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 23rd-25th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER |
 THE WHALE |
| 1 ★ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER $63.3 (cum. $261) 4202 screens |
1 🔺 THE WHALE $1.0 (cum. $2.5) 603 screens |
| 2 🔺 PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH $12.4 (cum. $18.5) *NEW* 4099 screens |
2 EMPIRE OF LIGHT $86k (cum. $682k) 350 screens |
| 3 🔺 WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY $4.7 *NEW* 3625 screnes |
3 🔺 ★ WOMEN TALKING $40k *NEW* 8 screens |
| 4 🔺 BABYLON $3.6 *NEW* 3343 screens |
4 ★ EO $38k (cum. $217k) 36 screens |
|
5 VIOLENT NIGHT $3.5 (cum. $41.9) 2562 screens |
5 ★ THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN $39k (cum. $8.8) 80 screens |
|
6 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $3.5 (cum. $426.1) 2250 screens |
6 🔺★ CORSAGE $32k *NEW* 2 screens |
 THE FABELMANS |
 CORSAGE |
|
7 ★ THE FABELMANS $745k (cum. $9.9) 1122 screens |
7 THE MEAN ONE $26k (cum. $540k) 51 screens |
|
8 ★ THE MENU $678k (cum. $33.8) 840 screens |
8 🔺★ LIVING $22k *NEW* 3 screens |
|
9 STRANGE WORLD $413k (cum. $35.6) 1390 screens |
9 ★ TÁR $17k (cum. $5.5) 36 screens |
|
Only nine films are in wide release (>800 screens) |
10 ★ ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED $10k (cum. $251k) 25 screens |
The Way of Water is still expected to have legs, with an 11-day total of $261 million. For the weekend, it's down 53%, but there isn't much in the way of competition. The three new wide releases landed with a thud. The exceptional Puss in Boots: The Last Wish managed only $12.5 million while the less than enthusiastic reviews of the terribly titled Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody barely made an impact. The big news is the crash and burn of Damien Chazelle's Oscar-hopeful Babylon, which barely made over $1,000 per screen in a very wide release. Not the best look for its award chances.
On the platform/limited side, things were much sunnier for Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. It's the only platform release to reach over $1 million since Glass Onion did it for the week it was out during Thanksgiving. Elsewhere, Oscar hopefuls Women Talking, Corsage, and Living all did respectable business on a combined 13 screens between them. Corsage won the best per-screen average with over $16k per screen.
NEXT WEEK - There isn't really such thing as a New Year's box office weekend. Studios make sure their awards hopefuls get qualifying releases, but nothing comes out wide. That doesn't change this week. The only notable release is the Tom Hanks-starring remake A Man Called Otto, but that doesn't go wide until later in January. It's slim pickings out there.
What did you see this weekend? Lots of Christmas movies for me, including Spirited, White Christmas, A Christmas Story, and The Holiday. I was able to rewatch Top Gun: Maverick with the family as well as the delightfully dark The Menu.