James Cameron climbs the ladder to cut the net for winning Deadline’s 2022 Most Valuable Blockbuster Movie Tournament after Avatar: The Way of Water cleared over a half-billion dollars in profit after all ancillaries. Given the sleeper nature of this sequel, and given the overall boom expected from this year’s global box office to $32
Avatar: The Way of Water
Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream
James Cameron’s Titanic is getting another release in China, this one timed to the 25th anniversary of the original film. An April 3 launch date has been set. The version going out on that day will be a remastered 3D 4K HDR update, as was the version that was released elsewhere in February, and will
Oscar-nomination afterglow for this year’s Best Picture contenders was largely felt more in the home than it was at the box office, with a majority of titles already available to be viewed on the couch except for 20th Century Studios/Disney’s 3D title Avatar: The Way of Water. Since noms were first announced on January 24
Imax said today it expects to return to its pre-pandemic gross box office level of $1.1 billion in 2023, even as it reported revenue of $98 million for last year’s fourth quarter, down 10% from the year before. Earnings per share fell to 19 cents from 31 cents. CEO Rich Gelfond attributed the dip to the Chinese
Imax chief executive Rich Gelfond said blockbuster titles will probably be back on Imax screens later this year, as per Top Gun: Maverick last year and, more recently, Titanic’s 25th anniversary re-release. “Yes, I think they do. Especially seeing what happens at the Academy Awards, and what wins,” said Gelfond when asked on a conference
Despite Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania soaking up the global box office with $225M start, the studio’s sister 20th Century Studios/Lightstorm James Cameron sequel Avatar: The Way of Water refuses to stop, despite the fact that the former title has all the premium tickets. Avatar: The Way of Water‘s running worldwide total now
Refresh for latest…: The latest rerelease of James Cameron’s Titanic 3D has buoyed the big boat movie to $2.217B globally, meaning it still stands as the No. 3 worldwide release of all time. Right in its wake, Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has now reached $2,213.5M, still the fourth biggest movie ever and less
UPDATE: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has overtaken the filmmaker’s own Titanic at the international box office with an estimated $1.538B through Sunday. That makes it the No. 3 movie of all time abroad, behind the original Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Globally, The Way of Water reached $2,174.4M through the 8th weekend, putting
Universal’s M. Night Shyamalan R-rated thriller Knock at the Cabin opened its doors last night to $1.45 million in previews off showtimes that began at 5 p.m. That number is just under the preview figure of Shyamalan‘s Old, which did $1.5M before a $16.8M opening. Knock at the Cabin‘s previews makes sense as the tracking
After reigning over the box office for the past seven weekends, 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s four-time Oscar-nominated Avatar: The Way of Water will cede No. 1 to Universal’s M. Night Shyamalan thriller Knock at the Cabin, which is set to do $15 million-$17 million per tracking sources at 3,600 theaters. Reviews haven’t hit yet on the
While studios took advantage of expanding their Oscar nominated Best Pictures this weekend — it’s truly a post-apocalyptic, err, post-pandemic marketplace when it comes to reaping any huge box office afterglow from this year’s crop. And the irony is that there’s only one streaming title among the top 10 Best Picture bunch, that being Netflix’s
EXCLUSIVE: When a tentpole works at the global box office, there’s a ripple effect with exhibition partners, not just the studio, bathing in riches. Such is the case for CJ 4DPlex’s Screen X and 4DX auditoriums which can brag that Avatar: The Way of Water, as it clocks $2.1 billion worldwide, is the exhibitor’s highest
SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Coming out of this weekend, by mid-week, Disney/20th Century Studios/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water will easily surpass The Avengers as the No. 10 highest-grossing movie ever in U.S./Canada with $623.3M. The James Cameron-directed pic is expected to gross between $14M-$16M for a seventh straight No. 1 weekend streak. Avatar 2‘s seven-weekend
Earlier this week, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water became the No. 5 highest-grossing movie ever worldwide, and, as expected, has now surfed to the No. 4 position on the all-time chart. In so doing, it leaves Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its wake with nearly $2.075B globally. Through Friday, the worldwide gross
With Wednesday’s worldwide box office grosses included, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has surpassed $2.054B globally, and jumped up a notch on the all-time worldwide chart. Globally through yesterday, the epic sci-fi adventure passed Avengers: Infinity War ($2,052M) with $2,054.7M to become the No. 5 highest-grossing movie ever worldwide. As we wrote on
Refresh for latest…: It’s now official, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has become the sixth movie ever to cross the $2B mark worldwide. It is also the filmmaker’s third to hit the milestone, alongside Titanic and the original Avatar. The mega-achievement was presaged ahead of the weekend with the global gross on the
Refresh for latest…: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water continues to outdo itself having crossed $1.8B globally and reaching nearly $1.9B at the worldwide box office through this weekend. The estimated global cume through Sunday is $1.894B. Avatar 2 still ranks as the No. 7 biggest movie of all time. Ahead of it at
FRIDAY AFTERNOON: As expected, Disney/20th Century Studios/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water remains number one again in its fifth weekend with an MLK four-day take of $35M after a $7M Friday, -39% at 4,045 sites. 3-day looks to be around $27M-$28M, -40%. That will get the James Cameron sequel to $566.7M at the domestic box
A flying ace, rampaging dinosaurs, Marvel, DC, Minions and battling blue aliens on a distant planet were among the highlights of 2022 for the Hollywood studios at the global and international box office. Still, it was yet another year of transition, with worldwide grosses reaching an estimated $26B — a 27% increase on 2021 but
UPDATE, writethru: That was fast. Coming out of its fourth weekend of release, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has topped $1.7B globally and become the No. 7 biggest movie of all time worldwide. With an estimated $1.708B through Sunday, the 20th Century Studios/Disney sequel has overtaken 2019’s The Lion King ($1.663B) and 2015’s
Reading the tea leaves with regard to China in 2023 is even more difficult than usual. The country’s about-face on its longstanding zero-Covid policy has implications from geopolitics to economics and, closer to home for Hollywood, the state of the market after a dismal 2022. Exactly what those implications are is where the guesswork comes
James Cameron believes Avatar: The Way of Water will break even, and is confident Disney will proceed with the sequels. Had Avatar 2 not been a moneymaker, there was a question about whether Cameron would realize his full vision of three more sequels despite the fact that he’s been in production on them. Cameron comments
FRIDAY PM: For an early January weekend falling after New Year’s Day and before MLK, it’s sure not sleepy. Some adult films may have a hard time working at the box office as moviegoing comes out of the pandemic, but you can bet the house on horror films. Universal has a vibrant No. 2 winner
Global box office for 2022 reached nearly $26B, a 27% gain on the previous year, according to Gower Street Analytics. Of the estimated $25.9B total, the international box office represents $18.4B, a 16% increase on last year at current exchange rates, the total being dragged down by China. Stripping out that market, overseas is estimated
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has now officially, and as projected, crossed the $1 billion mark at the international box office with Tuesday’s grosses included. What’s more for this 20th Century Studios/Disney juggernaut, at $1,482.5M worldwide through Tuesday, the epic sci-fi sequel is next on its way to yet another milestone and will
French cinemas amassed nearly 152 million admissions in 2022, new data from the National Cinema Center (CNC) shows. That’s an estimated 26.9% off the pre-pandemic three-year average (2017-2019), and an estimated 59.2% hike on 2021 which endured 138 days of movie theater closures. France reports its box office in terms of admissions, however, the total
SUNDAY AM, NEW YEAR’S DAY: While New Year’s Eve is typically a better moviegoing day than Christmas Eve, business was still down yesterday at -27% from Friday for all movies. That’s a similar decline to last weekend’s Friday-to-Christmas Eve (-26%). However, New Year’s Eve made more than Christmas Eve, $27.9M to $22.2M. Moviegoing is expected
China’s box office in 2022 dropped 36% versus 2021, reaching a little over RMB 30B ($4.35B). According to Chinese state media, citing figures from the China Film Administration, 85% of the 2022 revenue was generated by local movies, led by The Battle at Lake Changjin II with RMB 4.07B ($636M at historical rates, per comScore).
Refresh for latest…: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water rang in the New Year with another $186.7M from 52 international markets for a $1.379B global cume to date. Including China, the film rose 6% from last weekend’s Christmas frame offshore (excluding China, it was even with last session). The international box office now stands at