Any cynicism about a broken down Christmas box office, impacted by weather, was wiped away Tuesday as 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water racked up $23.8M sending its domestic cume to $317.1M. In addition, the sequel flew past the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Director James Cameron has told the media that the breakeven point for Avatar: The Way of Water stands at $2 billion global mark.
Avatar 2 in its offshore Tuesday saw $50.8M, for a $74.6M worldwide day, a $712.7M offshore total and overall $1.03 billion running global total. That’s the fastest movie to cross that threshold in 14 days since last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Nancy will have more details later.
That Tuesday take of Avatar 2 was more than the post Christmas Tuesdays of Spider-Man: No Way Home ($21.3M) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($22.5M), which has been the comp to the James Cameron directed sequel since opening. Avatar 2‘s 12th day of release was also higher than that of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which saw its second Tuesday falling on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and making $13.2M.
Rogue One crossed $400M stateside mark back in 2016 on its New Year’s Eve Saturday. Can Avatar 2 do the same?
Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish held solid with $6.7M on Tuesday, -2% from its Dec. 26 Monday of $6.8M, when many were off from work for the holiday. The sequel’s running total through seven days stands at $32.8M, 40% behind Sing 2 last year, which also opened on a Wednesday.
Disney/Marvel’s 7th Tuesday of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever bested holiday newcomers with $1.7M (-17% from Monday), rising above I Wanna Dance With Somebody ($1.55M) and Babylon ($1M, -20% from Monday). Running total for Babylon through 5 days is $5.8M (-22% from Monday), I Wanna Dance With Somebody is at $8.3M and Wakanda Forever stands at $429.8M.