After seven consecutive weekends, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER was knocked off its perch atop the Domestic box office by newcomer KNOCK AT THE CABIN, which earned $14.2M in its opening weekend. The suspense thriller from acclaimed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan tells the story of a young girl and her family taken hostage by four armed strangers while vacationing at a remote cabin. Their captors demand that they make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse.
This marks the fourth consecutive movie from Shyamalan, the modern-day Hitchcock, to win first place at the box office on its opening weekend. In 2017, SPLIT earned $40M when it opened 1/20 – 1/22. In 2019, GLASS earned $40M in its opening weekend from 1/18 -1/20. In 2021, as the industry was just beginning to show life as it emerged from the pandemic, OLD placed first in its opening weekend from 7/23 -7/25 with a gross of with $16.8M.
KNOCK AT THE CABIN’s opening is at an all-time low for Shyamalan, who burst onto the scene in 1999 with THE SIXTH SENSE. Neither reviewers nor moviegoers are impressed with CABIN, rated by critics at 68% and by audiences at 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. That said, the project is likely to be profitable for Universal, because of its very economical $20M production budget.
Paramount’s 80 FOR BRADY finished a close second with $12.5M in its opening weekend. As the title implies, the story of this comedy revolves around four octogenarian women who are super-fans of the famous NFL quarterback Tom Brady. The ladies, played by Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lilly Tomlin, and Rita Moreno, concoct a plan to travel to the Super Bowl to see their hero live. BRADY is timed to take advantage of the hype surrounding this year’s big game, which will take place next weekend in a faceoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Due to its strong female cast and appeal, the movie should enjoy a few good weeks of ticket sales before it fades. While critics have been lukewarm with a 64% RT score, audiences love it with an 89% RT rating. Because of its $28M production budget and likely drop after the Super Bowl, BRADY will have to hold up well next weekend to reach profitability.
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER slid into third place with a weekend gross of $10.8M, a drop of 32% from last weekend’s results. While its total domestic gross of $636M is impressive and has been a boost for exhibitors, it’s somewhat alarming for the industry overall to have one picture dominate the box office over such an extended period. AVATAR 2’s run at #1 has lasted nearly two months or one-sixth of the entire year!
It would be much better to see the industry produce a more consistent flow of high-grossing pictures, with a new arrival every three to four weeks. Even the most appealing movies suffer significant declines after a few weeks, leaving room for a new contender to step in and re-energize the box office. While we congratulate James Cameron and Disney for AVATAR’s success, we hope that no other movie this year will match its 7-week run in the first place.
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH finished in fourth by earning an additional $8M, a drop of 24% from last weekend. Its total Domestic run is a very solid $151M.
In a surprise, BTS: YET TO COME IN CINEMAS finished in fifth with $5.1M. This concert film features the South Korean pop star BTS, also known as the “Bulletproof Boy Scouts” or “Bangtan Boys.” The movie is being distributed by Trafalgar Releasing, a specialty distributor that has had success with prior releases of BTS concert films.
This gross is even more impressive because it played at only 1,111 theatres in North America and most locations scheduled only one or two screenings per day over the weekend. A robust slate of offerings from Trafalgar, Fathom, and other event cinema and specialty distributors have been a lifeline to theatres during the pandemic, which restricted the number of titles from Hollywood’s mainstream studios.
2023 is continuing its winning ways, with results from every week this year topping those from the same week last year. The total box office came in at $77M for all movies this weekend, compared with $59.5M in week 4 of 2022 when JACKASS FOREVER opened with $23.1M, and MOONFALL also debuted with $9.8M.
WHERE ARE WE AS OF 2/2
On the bright side, 2023 has done very well in comparison to 2022, having earned 172% after the first four weeks compared with the amount earned last year at this time. On the other hand, the tally to date for 2023 is a mere 71% compared with the first four weeks of 2019.
