Weekend Box Office: A Cold Christmas

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

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Weekend Box Office: A $134 Million Disappointment?

By Ben Miller

Avatar: The Way of Water made most of the money from this weekend's box office.  James Cameron's follow-up to 2009's Avatar was the unsurprising winner of the weekend with $134 million.  Oddly, that number is far below expectations for a supremely expensive film, which is in the realm of $250 million.  That doesn't mean all is said and done for the film's commercial chances.  The rest of the box office only managed $18 million.  It's still realistic for The Way of Water to end up as the highest grossing film of the year not named Top Gun: Maverick.

It also helps that Way of Water is playing on more expensive IMAX and 3D screens.  The film is well-regarded by critics (78% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has an A Cinemascore.  If anything can have legs, it's probably this.

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 16th-18th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER	THE WHALE
1 🔺★ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER $134.1*NEW* 4202 screens	1  🔺  EMPIRE OF LIGHT $233k (cum. $460k) 436 screens

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Weekend Box Office: The Waiting of Water

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

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Another quiet weekend in theaters with only one major new wide release

By Nathaniel R

The situation didn't improve at the box office post-Thanksgiving without much in the way of new films for people to see. That said, in the absence of competition Violent Night performed above expectations, thanks to the "Violent" in the title and its memorable marketing hook 'Santa Claus goes to war with criminal intruders in a rich family's home'.

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 2nd-4th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
VIOLENT NIGHT	THE FABELMANS
1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $17.5 (cum. $393.6)	1 ★ THE FABELMANS $1.2 (cum. $5.5) 638 screens

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Thanksgiving was Unkind to the Box Office

By Ben Miller

Thanksgiving weekend can usually be counted on for a big box office, but that was certainly not the case this year.  The entire box office managed just $92.9 million for the three-day weekend.  That's the lowest Thanksgiving box office weekend since 1994 (not counting 2020, obviously).  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever cruised to another easy box office win, dropping a mere 31% in it's third week of release.  The two new releases of Disney's Strange World and the war film Devotion both landed with relative thuds.  The marketing on both has been dubious at best...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) November 25th-27th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER	GLASS ONION
1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $45.6 (cum. $367.5)	1 🔺★ GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY $9.4 *NEW* 696 screens

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