Box Office Report for the Week of December 11

Before James Cameron becomes king of the world again with Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is enjoying a relatively quiet weekend at the movies. The film remains at the top spot, with a meager $11 million tally. It will likely not hit the $1 billion dollar mark, but Avatar: The Way of Water could do it. The word of mouth has been strong on social media, and I expect it to be even stronger when reviews start to come out, and people will venture into the theater to see it.

Violent Night continues to do well, while Strange World will be one of the biggest bombs from Disney in recent memory. No matter, because Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is coming to theatres in a week, and it is poised to make lots of money. Reviews have been surprisingly excellent, so expect families who may be weary of Avatar 2 to flock to that movie instead.

As far as other movies go, this week’s latest release, Empire of Light, bombed in 110 theatres, finishing up at eighteenth place with $160.000. Sam Mendes’ latest film is not opening well and has received lukewarm reviews from critics (though Joey was a fan here), a sign that audiences may not be venturing out for it.

On the other hand, Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whale performed much better in only six theatres, opening at the thirteenth place with $360.000. That’s very good, considering that A24 has been pushing Brendan Fraser for major awards consideration without mainstream audiences having seen an ounce of footage (and the teaser trailer that came out not long ago has been the only piece of promotional for the film…). Audiences clearly are curious about the film (which Joey raved about here) and Fraser (interviewed by Joey here) himself.

Here’s the full list of top 10 films of the week:

1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney): $11.1M (-36.7%) – 3,725 theatres
2. Violent Night (Universal): $8.6M (-35.3%) – 3,723 theatres
3. Strange World (Disney): $3.6M (-29.2%) – 3,560 theatres
4. The Menu (Disney): $2.7M (-22.2%) – 2,710 theatres
5. Devotion (Sony): $1.9M (-26.6%) – 3,458 theatres
6. Black Adam (Warner Bros/DC): $1.3M (-14.4%) – 2,143 theatres
7. The Fabelmans (Universal): $1.1M (-7%) – 973 theatres
8. I Heard the Bells (Fathom Events): $750.713 (-62.5%) – 1,180 theatres
9. Spoiler Alert (Universal): $700.407 (+744%) – 783 theatres
10. Ticket to Paradise (Universal): $599.795 (-29.8%) – 1,394 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo