After 13 years of hiatus, the "Avatar" sequel "The Way of Water" led ticket sales in movie theaters, drawing close to the 2009 production's box office records.
The Walt Disney Co.’s "The Way of Water" added $19.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Its global total has now surpassed $2 billion, putting it sixth all-time and just ahead of "Spider-Man: No Way Home." In the U.S., "The Way of Water" brought in $598 million. Continued robust international sales ($56.3 million for the weekend) have helped push the "Avatar" sequel to $2.024 billion worldwide.
A year ago, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" also topped the box office for six weekends but did it over seven weeks. You have to go back to Cameron's original "Avatar" to find a movie that stayed No.1 for such a long span. ("Avatar" ultimately topped out at seven weeks.) Before that, the only film in the past 25 years to manage the feat was another Cameron film; "Titanic" (1997) went undefeated for 15 weeks.
"The Way of Water" has now reached a target that Cameron set for the very expensive sequel. Ahead of its release, Cameron said becoming "the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" was "your break even."
The box-office domination for "The Way of Water" has been aided, in part, by a shortage of formidable challengers. The only new wide release from a major studio on the weekend was the thriller "Missing" from Sony's Screen Gems and Stage 6 Films. A low-budget sequel to 2018's "Searching," starring Storm Reid as a teenager seeking her missing mother, "Missing" plays out across computer screens. The film, budgeted at $7 million, debuted with $9.3 million.
January is typically a slow period in theaters, but a handful of strong-performing holdovers have helped prop up sales.
Though it didn't open hugely in December, Universal Pictures' "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" has had long legs as one of the only family options in theaters over the last month. It came in second place in its fifth week with $11.5 million domestically and $17.8 million overseas. The "Puss in Boots" sequel has grossed $297.5 million globally.
The creepy doll horror hit "M3gan," also from Universal, has continued pulling in moviegoers. It notched $9.8 million in its third week, bringing its domestic haul to $73.3 million.
And while the popularity of horror titles in theaters is nothing new, Sony Pictures' "A Man Called Otto," starring Tom Hanks, has flourished in a marketplace that's been trying for adult-oriented dramas. The film, a remake of the Swedish film "A Man Called Ove," about a retired man whose suicide his neighbors continually foil plans, made $9 million in its second week of wide release. It's taken in $35.3 million domestically through Sunday.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.