Disney/20th Century’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” maintains its No. 1 spot at the box office this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend with $31 million in its fifth weekend and is expected to extend that total to $39 million over four days to bring its domestic cume to $570 million.
Through Sunday, the film will have a total of $1.89 billion with a 3-day global weekend total of $119 million. With Monday’s domestic grosses, “Avatar 2” will pass the $1.9 billion mark, putting it on the threshold of passing the $1.91 billion of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and becoming the highest-grossing film of the pandemic era.
Behind it, Universal’s “M3GAN” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” are both showing strong numbers. “M3GAN,” an Atomic Monster/Blumhouse co-production, has only dropped 41% from its $30.4 million opening weekend for a $17.9 million 3-day/$21.2 million 4-day second weekend. That will give the $12 million horror film a total of $59 million after two weekends as it continues to ride strong word-of-mouth.
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is also catching new momentum from its strong word-of-mouth, with a $13.4 million 3-day total that is just a 1% drop from last weekend. The 4-day total of $17.3 million is up 18% from last week, buoyed by families heading out to the movies with kids out of school for the long weekend. On Monday, the film will pass $250 million worldwide with $110 million domestic and, in doing so, it will pass the box office run of last year’s DreamWorks Animation title “The Bad Guys.”
In fourth is Sony/Columbia’s “A Man Called Otto,” which grossed $6.2 million in limited release and is projected for a $12.6 million 3-day/$15 million 4-day opening from 3,802 theaters. It now has a domestic total of $21.2 million through Monday.
That is a positive result considering how most films aimed towards older audiences have struggled in theaters, with this opening total just below the $16 million 3-day opening of “Downton Abbey: A New Era” last May. Sony had projected an $8 million 4-day wide opening for this dramedy starring Tom Hanks but now has strong word-of-mouth among the 45+ crowd with a 5/5 on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak and a 96% audience Rotten Tomatoes score.
Now that “A Man Called Otto” has found an audience through its steady, nationwide rollout over the last three weekends, Sony must convert that into sustained turnout for the film to turn a profit theatrically. The film has a studio-reported $50 million budget co-financed by TSG and SF Studios, the Swedish studio that produced the film “A Man Called Ove,” upon which “Otto” is based. Sony bought the rights to the film after an intense bidding war early last year.
Completing the Top 5 is Lionsgate’s “Plane,” an action film starring Gerard Butler and Mike Colter that has earned a $10 million 3-day/$11 million 4-day opening from 3,023 theaters. This hits the top end of Lionsgate’s pre-weekend projections, with the studio facing a low bar to profitability as it only paid a distribution fee for the film.
“Plane” has a B+ on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 73% critics and 95% audience. As is typical for Gerard Butler action films, the opening weekend audience skewed to older men with 77% of moviegoers over the age of 25 and 55% male.
Outside the top 5 is Warner Bros.’ “House Party,” a remake of Reginald Hudlin’s 1990 comedy that got poor reviews with a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score. Released in 1,400 theaters, the film is estimated to earn an opening weekend of just $4.5 million, having been moved from HBO Max exclusive status to a theatrical release following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger in the hopes of elevating the film’s profile before it is released on streaming.