Walt Disney Co.’s science-fiction epic Avatar: The Method of Water battled winter storms within the US and Canada to usher in an estimated $56 million in ticket gross sales this weekend via Sunday.
![9bg15202b{ojc]wc(s6{ktyn_media_dl_1.png](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/financialpost/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/top-10-list-weekend-starting-dec-23-2002.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1128&h=846&type=webp)
Article content material
(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co.’s science-fiction epic Avatar: The Method of Water battled winter storms within the US and Canada to usher in an estimated $56 million in ticket gross sales this weekend via Sunday.
Commercial 2
Article content material
It garnered one other $168.6 million in theaters internationally over the weekend, for a complete haul of $855.4 million globally since its Dec. 16 launch, Disney mentioned in a press release Sunday.
Article content material
The corporate predicted the movie would absorb $82 million domestically over the 4 days that embrace the Monday after Christmas.
Whereas the film simply topped the field workplace, home ticket gross sales fell 58% from its $134.1 million opening weekend. That’s typical for an enormous movie launch, however executives at theater chains and at Disney had mentioned they anticipated The Method of Water could be extra resilient. That was earlier than storms shut some cinemas and introduced dangerously chilly climate in lots of components of the US.
The unique Avatar had a robust, however not spectacular, opening in 2009. It grew to become the highest-grossing image in Hollywood historical past as a result of it stayed on prime of the field workplace for seven weeks. In all, that film bought $2.92 billion price of tickets globally, buoyed by word-of-mouth about its 3D results and followers who noticed it a number of instances.
Commercial 3
Article content material
Author-director James Cameron secured an enormous finances to make the sequel, with The Method of Water manufacturing prices alone topping $350 million. Disney is planning to launch three extra Avatar movies via 2028. Whether or not it could possibly make that funding repay stays to be seen.
Whereas home field workplace receipts for The Method of Water got here in beneath some estimates in its opening weekend, the movie generated $50 million a day in ticket gross sales globally after that, with many youngsters out of faculty and adults taking time without work. Ticket gross sales might profit from bettering climate and a return of theatergoers within the coming weeks.
Learn extra: Disney cuts weekend forecast on ‘Avatar’ sequel’s gentle begin
The film confronted competitors this weekend from three new footage in huge launch. Puss in Boots: The Final Want, an animated movie from Comcast Corp.’s Common Footage, completed in second place with $11.35 million in North American ticket gross sales via Sunday, in line with an estimate from Comscore Inc.
Commercial 4
Article content material
Sony Group’s I Wanna Dance with Someone, a biopic of singer Whitney Houston, got here in third with a three-day whole of $5.3 million. Babylon, an grownup drama from Paramount World in regards to the film enterprise within the Nineteen Twenties, debuted in fourth place with $3.5 million via Sunday.
The leisure enterprise continues to be struggling to persuade film followers to come back again to theaters after pandemic-related closures. Movies are showing on streaming providers a lot sooner than they did up to now, as media giants look to bulk up subscriptions to these providers. That’s conditioned individuals to attend a couple of weeks to see new films at house.
With only a few days left within the yr, industrywide ticket gross sales whole $7.2 billion, effectively beneath the $11.4 billion generated domestically in 2019.
(Updates with Comscore figures ranging from eighth paragraph)
