‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ easily stayed atop the North American box office for a fifth straight week, taking in an estimated $38.5 million on a long holiday weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.
That brought the domestic total for the Disney/20th Century blockbuster – the story of a blue-skinned race on a distant moon – to an impressive $570 million, on top of an international total of $1.33 billion.
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‘The Way of Water’, a sequel to the 2009 film that was the top grosser ever, could be the first film to hit $2 billion worldwide since the Covid pandemic struck, Variety reported.
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In second place over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend was the scary-doll thriller ‘M3GAN’, from Universal and Blumhouse, at an estimated $21.2 million. The humanoid doll in question, designed as a companion to a young orphan girl, takes on a creepy life of her own.
Universal’s family-oriented ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’, an animated ‘Shrek’ spinoff, again placed third, taking in $17.3 million.
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Fourth place went to ‘A Man Called Otto’, at $15 million. The Sony film, a feel-good adaptation of the Swedish novel ‘A Man Called Ove’, stars Tom Hanks as a world-class curmudgeon forced to deal with some caring neighbours.
And in fifth was a new Lionsgate release, action-thriller ‘Plane’, at $11.6 million. Gerard Butler stars as a pilot who has to work with a convicted killer (played by Mike Colter) to protect passengers after the plane crash-lands in a remote Philippine jungle controlled by armed militias.
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Rounding out the top 10 were:
‘House Party’ ($4.5 million)
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ ($2.6 million)
‘The Whale’ ($1.8 million)
‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ ($1.4 million)
‘Waltair Veerayya’ ($1.2 million)
