Numbers are beginning to roll in for this weekend’s box office, and with no real competition, Avatar: The Way of Water will retain the top spot for an impressive sixth week in a row with over $20 million added to its till. That will put the James Cameron sequel right around the $600 million domestic mark as it sets its sights on taking over the number eight spot on the all-time domestic charts, which is currently occupied by The Incredibles 2 with $608.5 million.
In my predictions from Thursday, I noticed in the comments that some people thought my assessment that Avatar: The Way of Water might not make enough to surpass the $653.4 million that Jurassic World made to make it the ninth highest-grossing film of all time. I was basing that on the fact that the film is slowing down at the box office. With only a few weeks before Avatar loses its premium screens to Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it may struggle to get that additional $53 million. Of course, that isn’t to say it is impossible. With this weekend taking around $20 million and the next couple of weekends more than likely over $15 million each, in addition to weekday grosses that have been well over seven figures, it is certainly possible that those incremental sums will add up to take down the dinosaurs. If it does, that will put it in good company as James Cameron’s original record-shattering film Titanic currently sits in the number eight spot with $659.3 million.
The rest of the top five doesn’t look too dissimilar from the past few weeks, with M3GAN continuing to impress with around $15 million for the weekend. At the same time, the big surprise is the success of the Tom Hanks-led A Man Called Otto, which should finish the weekend with a little over $10 million. The remake of the Oscar-nominated Swedish film, A Man Called Ove has been a solid word-of-mouth hit, even managing to finish in second place from Tuesday to Thursday this week with well over $1 million added to its box office on each of those days. That is quite impressive when you consider that more dramatic, adult-targeted films have really struggled to find their audience at the theaters over the past few years. This is a big win for all involved, especially the film’s main star, as he is proving that the name Tom Hanks still carries some weight at the box office.
The only wide new release of the week is the $7 million budgeted Missing, which kicked off its theatrical engagements with $760,000 made from previews that began at 4 pm on Thursday. Nothing earth-shattering, but that number should give it enough momentum to recoup its production budget in its opening weekend, which is always a good thing. That number will keep in line with Searching’s wide opening of $7.6 million over Labor Day weekend in 2018. Reviews for this pseudo-sequel are fairly solid, with an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, the consensus is that the film loses momentum in its second half. You can check out our own Tyler Nichols 6/10 review here.
Have you made it to theaters this weekend? Are you trying to see Avatar: The Way of Water in Imax 3D before it’s too late, or did another movie strike your fancy? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full wrap-up of this weekend’s box office results.