‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Passes ‘Titanic’ on All-Time Global Box Office Charts

J. Kim Murphy Do you like scary movies? The rest of the box office does. Paramount’s “Scream VI” looks to spook off “Creed III” for the top slot at the domestic box office. The self-branded slasher re-quel grossed $19.3 million from 3,675 locations on its opening day, a figure that includes $5.7 million in previews. That’s more than enough to fend off the weekend’s other new releases, Sony’s science-fiction dinosaur thriller “65” and Focus Features’ sports comedy “Champions.” “Scream VI” is already a few steps ahead of its 2022 predecessor, which landed a $13 million opening day. In fact, the “Scream” franchise is proving to be bigger than ever. Should projections hold, the sixth entry will score a franchise record opening weekend of $43.5 million, a good deal higher than the $32 million that “Scream 2” earned in its 1997 bow.

After struggling during the holidays with “Babylon,” Paramount is back on the hot streak it had for much of 2022 with Spyglass’ “Scream VI,” which is performing just above pre-release projections with a $19.3 million opening day and an estimated $43.5 million opening from 3,675 screens. Heading into the weekend, the sixth installment of the late Wes Craven’s meta-horror franchise was projected for a $37-40 million launch, beating the $30 million opening of last year’s “Scream.” This result also beats the franchise opening record of $34.7 million set by “Scream 3”; though that threequel, which was released in 2000, still holds the record after inflation adjustment.

Oscar nom afterglow for this year’s Best Pictures was largely felt in the home than it was at the box office with a majority of titles already available to be viewed on the couch, except for 20th Century Studios/Disney’s 3D title Avatar: The Water.

Paramount/Spyglass Media’s Scream VIis headed to a franchise-record opening of $50M+ worldwide from roughly 50 offshore territories including domestic.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Creed III” delivered a powerful box office knockout with its $58.6 million domestic debut, clobbering expectations and franchise records in the process. And there’s more good news for struggling theater owners starved for compelling content. It looks like the good fortune will continue in March with “Scream VI” (March 10), “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” (March 17), “John Wick: Chapter 4” (March 24) and “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (March 31). There’s at least one major release every weekend through the rest of the month, offering the kind of stability that’s been desperately missing during the great box office reset.

Refresh for latest…: MGM’s Creed III is enjoying a knockout opening weekend, punching up $100.4M globally. Of that, $41.8M is from 75 international box office markets. Domestically, the Michael B Jordan-directed movie opened to a franchise record and the best debut ever for a sports title.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The “Rocky” spinoff, which The Post said keeps audiences “under its spell right until the end,” marks the ninth installment in the franchise. The action flick, which is the directorial debut of its leading man Michael B.

projected to pull in $40 million its opening weekend. MGM is projecting $35 to $38 million, on par with “Creed II”s $35.5 million opening. The 2018 sequel brought $3.7 million from preview screenings that took place on a Tuesday night ahead of the extended Thanksgiving weekend in 2018.“Creed III” must take in more than $115 domestically and $214 million worldwide to beat its predecessor, while the first installment in the franchise made $109 million in the U.S.

Jordan Moreau “Creed III” is stepping into the box office ring, and Michael B. Jordan’s latest movie has weighed in with $5.45 million in Thursday previews. The third “Creed” film is looking to deliver a powerful blow to the weekend box office with an opening between $36 million to $40 million. It should be the highest opening weekend for the boxing franchise, after the original “Creed” debuted with $29.6 million in 2015 and “Creed II” launched with $35.5 million in 2018. “Creed III” also landed the highest preview grosses of the series. The first movie, which opened on the Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving in 2015, pulled $1.4 million in Tuesday previews. “Creed II” had a similar pre-Thanksgiving release in 2018 and made $3.7 million in Tuesday previews.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Already the highest grossing local film in its home market, courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” has broken into Hong Kong’s all-time top ten box office ranking with a cumulative of HK$107 million ($13.7 million). Data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd. shows the film achieving the feat after just 41 days in cinemas and coming within HK$1 million ($150,000) of overtaking “Top Gun: Maverick.” The data firm noted that the last time a Hong Kong film got this far was with fantasy-action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004. Since then, it has been overtaken by a fleet of Hollywood titles. Hong Hong’s current top ten is headed by “Avengers: Endgame” and includes six Marvel movies, the two “Avatar” titles and “Titanic.”

EXCLUSIVE: A24’s The Whale, whose Oscar-nominated star Brendan Fraser scooped the prize for Male Actor in a Leading Role at the SAG Awards on Sunday night, is enjoying a strong run globally, having crossed $30M worldwide in the latest frame. Now at $32.3M global and with more overseas markets to release, the drama counts $15.5M so far from the international box office; that’s a nearly 50/50 split with domestic — a terrific result for a low-budget indie. Its global box office is close to that of The Fabelmans.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Even a return trip to Pandora wasn’t enough to lift quarterly earnings at AMC Theatres. Despite the box office success of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” revenues at the world’s largest cinema chain fell 15% in the fourth quarter, topping out at $990.4 million. That was down from $1.17 billion in the prior-year period. Losses also widened, as AMC posted a net loss of $287.7 million, a steeper shortfall than the $134.4 million in losses it recorded a year ago. AMC lost 26 cents per share, compared to a loss of 13 cents in the same quarter in 2021. That fell short of Wall Street’s projections. Analysts were expecting quarterly revenue of $1.05 billion and earnings loss of 22 cents per share. AMC’s stock was briefly up nearly 4% in after-hours trading before falling back into negative territory.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” took a sizable hit in its sophomore outing at the box office. Ticket sales for the third Marvel movie starring Paul Rudd’s subatomic hero were down 69% from its $105 million debut, resulting in the biggest second-weekend drop in the franchise’s history. That fall has inspired plenty of debate among analysts and experts: Is the film’s performance a blip or an inflection point in Hollywood’s biggest property? The answer is likely somewhere in between, according to senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “As second weekend drops go, anything in the 70% realm is pretty significant,” says Dergarabedian. “But movies that open with over $100 million are generally front-loaded. In some cases, ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’ comes into play.”

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The comedy, which is directed by Elizabeth Banks, whom The Post said, “keeps the powder gags fresh throughout,” is loosely based on a true story of a black bear in Georgia that ate millions of dollars worth of lost cocaine. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” which was in first place last week, creeped to second with an $8.3 million-dollar take.The plummet in sales for the superhero flick, which cost around $200 million to make, marks the worst-ever second-week drop for a Marvel film, according to Deadline.Remaining in third was “Avatar: The Way of Water” with $1.1 million in sales.

While the box office climbed out of its August/September slump during the final quarter of 2022, Cinemark still reported a quarterly loss of $99.3 million, or 82 cents per share, amid a sluggish Thanksgiving holiday and a Christmas hampered by winter storms throughout much of the U.S.Cinemark reported quarterly revenue of $599.7 million, a 10% drop from last year’s $666.7 million, and well below Q3’s $650 million. The results came in ahead of the average Wall Street estimate for $568.5 million in revenue, according to Zack’s Investment Services.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Sometimes it takes more than a pair of global blockbusters to shake off the lingering impact of a devastating public health crisis. Quarterly sales and profits fell at Imax despite the commercial success of “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The big screen company recorded revenues of $98 million, a 10% drop from the $108.6 million that Imax recorded in the year-ago period. The company also recorded profits of $2.6 million, compared to the $10.1 million that Imax logged in the year-ago period. That came out to earnings of 19 cents a share, which failed to match the profits of the 31 cents that Imax recorded in the same period in 2021.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Disney’s box office domination has started early in 2023. Six weeks into the new year, the studio has already cleared $1 billion globally, with ticket sales at $1.283 billion to date. It can take other major studios up to 12 months to hit that benchmark. Thanks to the combined turnout for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and the international re-release of “Titanic,” Disney’s 2023 box office tally stands at $383 domestically and $900 million internationally. James Cameron’s enduring “Avatar” sequel is the main reason that Disney has surpassed $1 billion faster than its rivals. Over the weekend, “The Way of Water” reached a staggering $2.2433 billion worldwide, enough to overtake “Titanic” ($2.2428 billion) as the third-highest grossing movie of all time. Also during the President’s Day holiday frame, the third “Ant-Man” adventure opened across the globe, performing above expectations with $225 million worldwide.

Despite Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania soaking up the global box office with $225M start, the studio’s sister 20th Century Studios/Lightstorm James Cameron sequel Avatar: The Way of Water refuses to stop, despite the fact that the former title has all the premium tickets. Avatar: The Way of Water‘s running worldwide total now stands at $2.243 billion, making it the third highest movie ever, sending Cameron’s own Titanic (which recently had a re-release) to fourth with $2.242 billion.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter James Cameron’s blockbuster epic “Titanic” has relinquished its spot as the third-highest grossing movie in history to another James Cameron blockbuster epic, “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The sci-fi sequel has generated $2.2433 billion globally, enough to overtake “Titanic” with $2.2428 billion at the worldwide box office. Now, “The Way of Water” trails only “Avatar” ($2.92 billion) and “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.7 billion) on all-time box office charts. Cameron, the sole filmmaker with three movies to gross $2 billion or more, has directed the first, third and fourth biggest releases ever. Like the original “Avatar,” the follow-up’s success is attributed to its generation-spanning appeal as well as the incentive to watch the film in premium and 3D formats. On Imax screens, the movie has crossed $250 million. That’s more coinage than many films manage to earn in their entire theatrical runs.

which The Post called “a pile of dirt,” took home a staggering $63.5 million, according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.It scored as the third-highest opening day in February after “Black Panther” and “Deadpool,” as per Deadline.“Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” the final installment of the Channing Tatum stripper series, undressed its way to second place, with a $1.66 million-dollar take.Released on Feb. 9, the comedy-drama is “so long and repetitive that you would gladly tip the guys to stop and put some pants on,” said The Post.“Avatar: The Way of Water” remained in third, earning close to $1.36 million.