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
M3GAN
In a turnabout, China is handing out release dates for Hollywood movies at a clip these days — and with a fair bit of notice. Yesterday, we learned that Paramount/eOne’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will go day-and-date on March 31, and today comes news that Universal/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster’s hit M3GAN has been granted a
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
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water will reign supreme in its fifth weekend over the four-day MLK holiday frame with an estimated take around $35M. The Disney/20th Century Studios/Lightstorm title through yesterday raised its running total to $525.66M after a $4.5M Tuesday. The sequel will feasibly overtake the domestic total of its comp, Rogue
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
EXCLUSIVE: James Wan has been labeled by fans for being responsible for killer doll movies, specifically his Conjuring franchise spinoff, Annabelle. “It’s funny, I really hadn’t done that yet,” says the horror auteur. And that was his prime reason to create M3GAN with screenwriter Akela Cooper. “In my previous doll movies — they don’t kill
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
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
The Universal/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster genre film M3GAN is hitting screens a week earlier than its original MLK weekend date, and now will be released January 6. The pic from director Gerard Johnstone and producers James Wan and Jason Blum moves onto a date where there’s Sony’s untitled True Haunting movie, and away from New Line’s House