credit: Avatar: The Way of Water
Never Bet Against James Cameron
Never bet against James Cameron. That should be a lesson everyone learns at this point. Avatar: The Way of Water is a guaranteed success as the sequel made over $1 billion in fourteen days. The film collected over $20 million more at the box office on Monday. That officially beat Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s box office total in less than two weeks! Can Avatar: The Way of Water climb the ladder and make over $2 billion at the box office? Anything is possible, but it seems like a firm no. Though the original Avatar only made $77 million in its opening weekend, it became the top-grossing film of all time.
In its second weekend, Avatar only dropped an astounding 2%, which is extremely rare. Avatar: The Way of Water dropped 58%, not counting Monday’s total. That total isn’t that much different from Black Panther 2, which had a 63% drop following it’s strong opening weekend. However, Black Panther 2 just isn’t connecting with audiences as the original feature did. Some fans weren’t happy with Marvel’s decision not to recast T’Challa. Other MCU fans aren’t particularly thrilled with the replacement of the Black Panther. The Ryan Coogler sequel is far from a flop, but it’s still disappointing since it didn’t even come close to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
credit: Avatar: The Way of Water
People Just Want A Good Movie
The sequel is doing exceptionally well for a movie over 13 years in the making. Then again, Top Gun: Maverick is coming off a film that came out in 1986. Clearly, audiences don’t care how long a movie takes to be released if it’s a great film. The Christmas holiday weekend was met with several new releases: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Babylon, and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, yet none of them even came close to touching the James Cameron sequel. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is another sequel over a decade in the making. However, audiences just didn’t seem that interested in seeing the adorable cat with a sword’s latest adventure.
There have been rumors that a Shrek 5 was in the works. Given the performance of the Puss in Boots sequel, that may scare off the studio’s attempt at a huge comeback for the Shrek franchise. On the bright side, The Last Wish garnered a solid $18.5 million. Those are numbers that Babylon and I Wanna Dance With Somebody wishes they had. Babylon turns out to be the latest award feature to bomb hard at the box office. The most notable is Amsterdam, the David O. Russell film that had a huge production price tag of $80 million. Unfortunately, its entire box office runs only collected $31.2 million. Babylon seems on track to being a worse bomb, as the reported price tag was $100 million plus for the Damien Chazelle feature.
credit: Avatar: The Way of Water
Oscar Hopefuls Continue To Bomb At The Box Office
The Oscar hopeful starred Margot Robbie (who was also in Amsterdam), Brad Pitt, and Jean Smart. Don’t be surprised if this is pulled from theaters quickly, like “Amsterdam”. That film also had an all-star cast that featured Robbie and Christian Bale. Oscar potentials haven’t done so well at the box office. The Whale, The Fablemans, The Menu, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Empire of Light just haven’t made a huge splash at the box office. The Whitney Houston Bio-pic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, was supposed to be an Oscar hopeful, but the buzz surrounding the film has been really quiet, and the reviews killed any sort of awards potential it had. There isn’t much coming to challenge Avatar: The Way of Water for the next couple of months, so the James Cameron sequel will likely be this year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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