Box Office Report for the Week of October 3

It was a relatively quiet weekend at the movies, with no major tentpoles being released, except for the re-release of Avatar: The Way of Water, which displaced One Battle After Another from several IMAX screens and didn’t perform as well as its 2022 reissue. Perhaps it’s because, unlike James Cameron’s 2009 film, the second installment is still fresh in the minds of many moviegoers, so they don’t need to see it again, teaser for Avatar: Fire and Ash be damned. The film made a pretty dismal $3.1 million, while One Battle After Another dropped just below 50% with an $11.1 million tally this weekend.

The reissue of The Way of Water shared IMAX screens with Benny Safdie‘s The Smashing Machine, which also didn’t do so well. It opened in third place, sure, but the $6 million tally it made came with a heavy $50 million price tag for the project. The reception for the film soured after its Venice Film Festival premiere, where Safdie won the Silver Lion for Best Director award, and it appears to have impacted word of mouth about the film itself.

The only big winner this weekend at the movies and in the music world is Taylor Swift, whose Official Release Party of a Showgirl snagged $33 million, while only playing from October 3 to the 5th. While it did not have the benefit of an IMAX release like her Eras Tour concert film, the companion piece to her Life of a Showgirl album still brought the house down and sold out many cinemas around the country, going so far as to crash several websites for major movie theater chains.

It’d be great if we could have the same excitement and energy for major theatrical movies. Still, no one’s complaining too much. The industry will take their wins where they can get them, especially in such an unpredictable post-COVID environment that the industry is still recovering from, sadly.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Taylor Swift | The Official Release Party of a Showgirl (Variance Films): $33.0M – 3,702 theatres
2. One Battle After Another (Warner Bros): $11.1M (-49%) – 3,634 theatres
3. The Smashing Machine (A24): $6.0M – 3,345 theatres
4. Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (Universal): $5.2M (-62%) – 3,507 theatres
5. The Conjuring: Last Rites (Warner Bros): $4.0M (-40%) – 2,753 theatres
6. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle (Sony): $3.5M (-51%) – 2,547 theatres
7. Avatar: The Way of Water – 2025 Re-Release (Disney): $3.1M – 2,140 theatres
8. The Strangers: Chapter 2 (Lionsgate): $2.8M (-52%) – 2,690 theatres
9. Good Boy (IFC Films): $2.2M – 1,650 theatres
10. Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 (Prathyangira Cinemas): $1.7M – 689 theatres

Source: Comscore