A quick Saturday update for you as Avatar: The Way of Water continues its streak atop the box office with an estimated weekend take of $15 million. That number added to its international grosses will put it past Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the fourth highest grossing worldwide release of all time which now means James Cameron is responsible for three of the top four highest grossing movies ever made, if it wasn’t for those damn Avengers in second place!
Apart from that bit of news, the top five this weekend really isn’t too earth shattering. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is continuing its slow burn release that is now over $300 million worldwide. Again, quite impressive when you consider the movie opened to just around $12 million at the domestic box office.
The Tom Hanks starring A Man Called Otto is continuing its strong word of mouth roll out. The film is proving that sometimes middle of the road reviews (including a 5/10 from our own Chris Bumbray) have not soured the general public’s appreciation of this relatively feel good dramedy. Having seen the movie a few weeks back, I can say I did very much enjoy it. Was it the greatest movie ever made? No. But it worked for me as a nice palate cleanser between big action films. Although I do remember hearing the bass from Avatar which was playing in the theater next to mine!
There is actually an interesting story developing in France where Babylon became the first movie to beat Avatar: The Way of Water at the box office. As most of us know, Babylon has been a massive bomb at the domestic box office, only taking in around $15 million since its release. The surprise is that the film which seems to be so American in its story of old Hollywood, is performing pretty well outside the United States. Of course with a production budget listed in the $80 million range and only around $31 million in worldwide receipts, the Damien Chazelle film will not come anywhere close to recouping its budget theatrically. I still think this one has the potential to become a cult hit once it hits home video and more people are willing to watch a 3 hour and 9 minute movie where they can pause it at their convenience. The run time was certainly a factor in how poorly it performed, as were a few plot threads that seemed to have little to no purpose, but as I have said, there are moments of absolute brilliance in the film.
Of the new releases, it looks like targeted audiences are making their way to theaters as the Indian language Pathaan is looking at a nearly $6 million opening while the Kevin Sorbo faith based film Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist is projected for a little over $2 million. The other new release of the weekend: Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool looks to open with $3 million on a limited theatrical release that was edited to achieve an R rating. Our own Chris Bumbray was lucky enough to see the full NC-17 cut while he was at the Sundance Film Festival, where he gave it a solid 8/10 rating. Other titles potentially cracking the top ten this weekend are the Chinese sequel Wandering Earth II which opened in major cities across North America and could see a $1.3 million weekend while the Billie Eilish: Live at the 02 concert film is looking to do around the same.
Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If you saw the R rated cut of Infinity Pool, did it still have enough sex and violence for you? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for a full rundown on this weekends box office numbers.