Christmas Day brought good news to several films at the box office, starting with 20th Century/Lightstorm’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” which added $24 million to its domestic total on Thursday and passed the $500 million mark worldwide.
Through its first week in theaters, “Avatar 3” has earned $153 million domestically and is now expected by theatrical sources to earn a second weekend of at least $70 million, which would equate to a drop of 20% or less from the film’s $88 million opening weekend. Globally, the film stands at $544 million.
Meanwhile, A24’s “Marty Supreme” and Sony’s “Anaconda” got off to good starts on their respective opening days. “Marty Supreme” earned $9.5 million from its first full day in wide release in 2,668 locations and is now expected to surpass pre-release projections of a $20 million 4-day opening.
While the Josh Safdie thriller faces an uphill road to theatrical profit with a $70 million production budget before an extensive marketing campaign — albeit one still lower than most studios despite aggressive promotion on NBA Christmas Day games — “Marty Supreme” has enjoyed some of the strongest reviews of the year with a 94% critics and 82% audience RT score.
And on CinemaScore, opening day audiences gave the film a B+, a full letter grade higher than the C+ for Safdie’s 2019 film “Uncut Gems” starring Adam Sandler and on the higher end for A24 as only two wide releases from the distributor — “Warfare” and “The Iron Claw” — have ever earned an A- from the audience poll.
Just behind “Marty” is “Anaconda” with a $9.1 million opening day from 3,509 locations. The adventure comedy based on the 1997 cult horror film of the same name stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd and is now projected by Sony for a $22-24 million 4-day opening against a $45 million budget.
Critics are tepid on “Anaconda” with a 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audience reception is somewhat better with a 79% RT score and a B on CinemaScore.
Overall, grosses on Christmas Day reached $68 million, a new post-pandemic high for the holiday that tops the $62.3 million seen in 2023.
More to come…