It was a tight race for first place this weekend but after the dust has settled, the cabins have been knocked on and the 80’s have been Brady’d… M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin has emerged the victor with $14.2 million, becoming the first film to unseat James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water from the top of the box office after an impressive seven week run.
This marks M. Night Shyamalan’s seventh film to open at the top of the charts (after 2021’s Old.) The Dave Bautista led film has become a bit divisive since its release with critics (including our own Chris Bumbray who gave it an 8/10 in his review) generally enjoying the film, with some hailing it as Shyamalan’s best film in over twenty years, while general audiences seem to be finding the film a bit mundane with an audience score currently at 64% (for reference, that score was a 70% yesterday.) For my money, I am right in the middle, I enjoyed watching the movie and couldn’t take my eyes off the screen while it played but ultimately left the theater feeling a bit unsatisfied. With a C cinemascore, and a less than expected opening (I had predicted an over $20 million opening), I’m not sure this one will have the legs other M. Night Shyamalan movies have had.
Second place belongs to the octogenarian generation as 80 For Brady was able to gather $12.5 million. The impressive thing is: 80 For Brady reportedly sold more tickets than Knock at the Cabin but Paramount enticed older audiences, who have been reluctant to get back to cinemas over the past few years, with “Throwback” pricing such as “$8 For Brady.” This tactic came from noticing that older skewing films such as A Man Called Otto and Ticket To Paradise would do most of their business on “Discount Tuesdays” when theaters across the country slash ticket prices for the day. All Paramount did was employ that discount pricing to the weekend and they saw their film over index at the box office. Granted, 80 For Brady is actually quite good (and that pains me to say as someone who isn’t a big fan of Tom Brady. Joe Montana is and forever will be the G.O.A.T!) With a strong 90% audience score, an A- cinemascore, and just a good natured light hearted comedy that caters to an underserved audience at the theaters, I think this one will have some decent legs over the coming weeks. (And as we always say, film is subjective. Whereas I really enjoyed this light hearted film, our own Chris Bumbray did not seem to be a fan in his 5/10 review.)
Moving down to third place is James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water with $10.8 million added to its top ten all time domestic gross of $636.4 million. As the movie finally shows it is merely mortal, it is time to reflect on just how massive this film truly was. Prior to its release, the big question was can this movie actually live up to its predecessor? Not just in terms of quality, but also in terms of sheer dollars and cents. 3D has fallen out of favor since the original was released, so would Cameron offer up something that would drive people to theaters to have an experience they couldn’t get from home? When the film opened to a less than stellar $134 million at the domestic box office, many people sounded the alarms, yet most took note that when it comes to James Cameron films, you have to play the long game. That long game paid off in spades as the film continued to have small week to week drops not just in North America but all around the world resulting in Avatar: The Way of Water becoming the tenth highest grossing movie ever made at the domestic box office and the fourth highest grossing at the worldwide box office (with over $2.1 billion). So now we turn our attention to December 20, 2024, when Avatar 3 is set to be released that will focus on a new breed of evil fire Na’vi, and wonder anew if the magic will continue for this record breaking franchise.
Fourth place is another impressive story of a sequel that opened to less than stellar numbers ($12.4 million to be exact) but has gone on to be an unstoppable force at the box office with the animated sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish pulling in an additional $7.9 million to add to its impressive $151.2 million total take. With Eddie Murphy making the rounds promoting his streaming film You People, the question has been brought up about returning to voice his iconic role as Donkey. He has said he would say yes to Shrek 5 in two seconds, and with the success of this spin off franchise, I think the powers that be should listen and get the ball rolling on that Shrek sequel as obviously the audience is there for it.
Rounding out the top five is BTS: Yet To Come in Cinemas with $5.1 million and a running total of $7.8 since opening on February 1st. The concert film was shot on October 23, 2022 in Busan which saw a crowd of over 50,000 excited K-pop fans enjoy this free concert. I must admit, BTS isn’t really my type of music, but I do appreciate a good concert film in theaters (I still remember seeing Metallica: Through The Never in Imax 3D nearly ten years ago.) However, if BTS is your cup of tea, you should get out to theaters to see it as soon as possible as it will only be playing for a limited time (although perhaps with the numbers it garnered this weekend, that run may get extended.)
With the exception of The Chosen: Season 3 Finale coming in ninth place with a $3.6 million weekend and $5.3 million since opening on Thursday, the remainder of the top ten contains your holdover films such as A Man Called Otto continuing its solid run with an additional $4.1 million added to its till while the hit horror film M3GAN adds $3.8 million to its impressive $87.5 million running total. Even Missing with its $12 million budget can be counted as a semi win for the studio as it added $3.7 million to its $23.01 million total, while tenth place belongs to the Indian language release Pathaan with an additional $2.7 million.
Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If so, what did you see. Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to take our weekly poll where we ask what movie had your favorite twist ending.