Box Office Report for the Week of December 21

Let me guess, you bet against James Cameron. How many times must we teach you never to bet against the king? While the initial domestic opening weekend for the third entry in his Avatar series, Fire and Ash, might have fell short of the $100 million mark, or the gargantuan opening tally of The Way of Water, one always has to understand that, with these films, the opening isn’t the prize, but in the long game, particularly in the coming weeks, as the Christmas corridor offers plenty of new movies for audiences to see around the Holidays.

For now, however, the movie went on to gross $345 million in its global opening and could very well outpace Ne Zha 2 as the highest-grossing movie of the year if momentum for the film continues. Even with a mixed critical reception, there’s no denying that James Cameron makes entertainment meant to be experienced on the biggest possible screen (in 3D), and the film could absolutely have long legs throughout Christmas.

Cameron will have stiff competition, with Angel Studios’ David, already making it the biggest opening for the faith-based studio since 2023’s Sound of Freedom, with a staggering $22 million opening, and taking a massively unexpected bite out of The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, which was positioned to be the last big animated title of the year. The fourth entry opened in fourth place, with a $16 million tally, but the Christmas corridor could prove beneficial for the titles, especially if parents want to bring their children to the cinema, but are too young for Avatar and aren’t interested in David.

Meanwhile, Paul Feig‘s The Housemaid also took some heat from Avatar, opening at $19.0 million domestically, but the week’s most impressive story isn’t Jim Cameron doing what Jim Cameron does, but Josh Safdie‘s Marty Supreme priming itself to be one of Christmas’ most successful independent hits, and perhaps A24’s highest-grossing film ever. The movie opened in limited release this week, in only six theatres in New York and Los Angeles, and grossed a whopping $875.000, which is roughly $145.833 per screen. Insane.

If you think this film isn’t going to dream big on the big screen, you may be in for the biggest reality check of your life…

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

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash (Disney): $88.0M – 3,800 theatres
2. David (Angel Studios): $22.0M – 3,118 theatres
3. The Housemaid (Lionsgate): $19.0M – 3,015 theatres
4. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (Paramount): $16.0M – 3,540 theatres
5. Zootopia 2 (Disney): $14.5M – 3,540 theatres
6. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (Universal): $7.2M (-44%) – 3,540 theatres
7. Wicked: For Good (Universal): $4.3M (-50%) – 2,913 theatres
8. Dhurandhar (Moviegoers Entertainment Ltd): $2.4M (-30%) – 400 theatres
9. Marty Supreme (A24): $875.000 – 6 theatres
10. Hamnet (Universal): $850.000 (-41%) – 617 theatres

Source: Comscore