{"id":155326,"date":"2022-12-12T08:19:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T08:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-terrible-box-office-weekend-and-then-avatar-the-way-of-water\/"},"modified":"2022-12-12T08:19:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T08:19:59","slug":"a-terrible-box-office-weekend-and-then-avatar-the-way-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-terrible-box-office-weekend-and-then-avatar-the-way-of-water\/","title":{"rendered":"A Terrible Box-Office Weekend and Then Avatar: The Way of Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least the weekend total of $37 million is unlikely to be matched for a long time. Next weekend might be six times better.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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At $37 million total, it can’t get much worse than this weekend. This year, it won’t: Thursday’s first shows for James Cameron’s \u201cAvatar: The Way of Water\u201d (Disney) should easily double that take. By the end of the weekend, it could top $200 million.<\/p>\n

This was the second worst weekend of 2022 (by only a small margin over the end of January). We can’t blame the calendar: The same date last year took in $44 million. In 2019, it was $118 million.<\/p>\n

With no new studio openings, the share compared to pre-Covid 2019 (with 20 percent lower ticket prices) is 31 percent. That year saw \u201cJumanji: The Next Level\u201d open to $59 million, which disproves the idea that this date should be avoided.<\/p>\n

Of course, one big reason to avoid this weekend is it’s immediately followed by \u201cAvatar.\u201d With studios making fewer movies, they’re loathe to put a big release’s second weekend against a blockbuster.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever\u201d (Disney) was #1 for a fifth and final time ($11 million, $409 million domestic total), down 37 percent. That’s a decent hold at this stage, but with no significant new alternatives it fell more than all but one of the other top 10 titles.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
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Related<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n

Give credit to the struggling \u201cThe Fabelmans\u201d (Universal) for dropping only seven percent. But that comes with a caveat: Steven Spielberg’s movie added 335 theaters (now 973), with its per-theater average down about a third. The film has a pulse, but not enough to argue with Universal’s decision to place it on PVOD this week in hopes of capturing more of its core older audience.<\/p>\n