Box Office Recap: January 13-15, 2023
Avatar stays on top of the box office over the MLK holiday weekend, while M3GAN closes in on the $100 million mark.
To no one’s surprise, Avatar: The Way of Water ruled the box office for the fifth straight weekend, collecting a little over $30 million as it draws closer to the $2 billion milestone. The Jason Blum/James Wan-produced killer doll flick M3GAN continues to perform well, coming in under $10 million shy of hitting the $100 million milestone by just its second weekend in release. Meanwhile, in addition to the nationwide expansion of comedy-drama A Man Called Otto, the weekend saw the openings of the House Party reboot and the Gerard Butler actioner Plane, with the former performing slightly below expectations and the latter enjoying a modest $10 million debut.
Dropping only -32.1% from its prior weekend frame, the first-place Avatar: The Way of Water brought in $31.1 million domestically, pushing its domestic total to $562.9 million. Overall, the sci-fi actioner is just inches away from hitting the $2 billion mark worldwide with $1.9 billion. Currently, it’s roughly $15 million away from surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home for sixth-place on the all-time worldwide box office chart.
Holding on to the runner-up spot, Universal’s sci-fi horror M3GAN dropped a respectable -41.1% from its opening weekend frame, bringing in a sophomore run of $17.9 million domestically, which puts its domestic total over $50 million with $56.4 million. Worldwide, the killer doll movie has earned close to $100 million so far with $93.9 million. Due to the film only getting a 17-day theatrical release window, it won’t be matching the numbers of the most recent box office horror hit Smile ($216.1 million); however, it should be kept in mind that this movie was, reportedly, made for only $12 million, so it’s fair to say that no one at Universal is complaining.
Holding on to third-place, Universal and DreamWorks’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continues to hold strong with a $13.4 million run domestically over its fourth weekend in release. This now pushes its domestic total $106.4 million. Overall, the animated adventure sequel has earned $251.3 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $90 million.
Remaining in fourth place, Columbia Pictures’s A Man Called Otto expanded to a full nationwide release and earned a respectable $12.6 million domestically, pushing its domestic total now to $18.8 million. So far, the comedy-drama, starring Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, has altogether earned $35.7 million globally. While that is a nice bump for the film, almost tripling what it had earned in total from its prior frame, it’s still roughly $15 million shy of matching its reported $50 million production budget, but steady legs between both domestic and international markets may help it reach that mark within the next week or two.
Rounding out the top five, Lionsgate’s Plane, starring Gerard Butler and Mike Colter, opened in 3,023 locations and managed to meet pre-release expectations with $10.0 million domestically. While not a huge opening, the film only has a modest production budget of $25 million to catch up to, and with mostly favorable reviews from critics and a solid “B+” CinemaScore from opening weekend moviegoers, that should bode well for the action thriller’s legs.
Just outside the top five, in sixth place, Warner Bros.’s House Party debuted in 1,400 screens domestically and earned $3.8 million. For comparison, the original comedy from 1990 earned $4.6 million over its opening weekend and went on to earn $26.4 million.
Rounding out the whole top ten, the India-based, Tollywood action comedy Waltair Veerayya opened domestically in 350 theaters and brought in $1.08 million, earning a per-theater average of $3,085.
Opening this weekend, Sony and Screen Gems will release their mystery thriller Missing, the sequel to 2018’s Searching starring Storm Reid, Ken Leung and Nia Long.
* Total worldwide gross listed in parenthesis.
1) Avatar: The Way of Water – $31.1 million, Week 5 ($1.9 billion)
2) M3GAN – $17.9 million, Week 2 ($93.9 million)
3) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – $13.4 million, Week 4 ($251.3 million)
4) A Man Called Otto – $12.6 million, Week 3 ($35.7 million)
5) Plane – $10.0 million, Week 1 ($10.0 million)
6) House Party – $3.8 million, Week 1 ($3.8 million)
7) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $2.2 million, Week 10 ($835.2 million)
8) The Whale – $1.5 million, Week 6 ($10.7 million)
9) Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody – $1.10 million, Week 4 ($49.1 million)
10) Waltair Veerayya – $1.08 million, Week 1 ($1.08 million)
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