For a third consecutive week, Avatar: The Way of Water finished as the top film of the box-office weekend. This week, it did so by a margin $47.1 million ($2.5 million more than last week). The film now boasts a three-week tally of $421.6 million.
With its $63.4 million over the weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water now lays claim to the fourth best weekend of all time as it climbs the list of all time domestic grosses. Meanwhile, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish held its ground to remain in second place with $16.3 million. This gives the film a two-week total of $60.7 million. Climbing two spots to finish in third this weekend was the aforementioned Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with $4.8 million. This gives the Marvel film an eight-week total of $438.0 million. Falling to fourth place over the weekend was the biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody which took in $4.3 million in its second weekend in release to bring its overall total to $14.9 million. This flip pushed Babylon to fifth place with $2.7 million over the weekend. The film now claims a two-week total of $10.1 million.
Holding steady in the sixth spot over the weekend was Violent Night with $2.1 million. This gives the film a five-week total of $47.5 million. Similarly standing pat over the weekend was The Whale with $1.3 million and a finish in seventh-place. his gives the film a four-week total of $5.8 million. Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg and The Fabelmans took in $1.14 million over the weekend, which was enough to supplant The Menu and finish in eighth place. The Menu, managed $1.07 million and a ninth-place finish, although the film now boasts a seven-week total of $36.1 million. Finally, Strange World held the tenth spot with $538,000 (the only film to in the top ten to finish below the million-dollar threshold). But, the film can still boast a six-week total of $37.0 million.
Remarkably, this weekend saw no new films crack the weekend box office. Consequently, there were no films pushed out of the top ten. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Only time will tell.
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.