Battle at the Box Office 1/2/23

Avatar: The Way of Water remained at the top of the box office as we enter 2023, nearing $1.5 billion worldwide.

The Way of Water made another $66.8 million domestically over the New Year’s weekend, up 6% from last weekend’s Christmas weekend.  The movie has $424.9 million domestically and $1.4 billion worldwide, with $141.2 million so far coming from China, with France and South Korea as the next biggest international markets.  If you adjust for inflation, The Way of Water is performing almost identically to the original Avatar domestically.  The Way of Water is currently the 2nd biggest movie domestically and worldwide behind Top Gun: Maverick.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish stayed in second place with another $16.7 million, up 35% from last weekend.  Most of the movies in theaters saw an increase in business this weekend, most likely because Christmas Eve, which was Saturday the previous weekend, is traditionally an extremely slow day in theaters.  Puss in Boots has $61.1 million domestically so far and $135.8 million worldwide.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever surged back into the top 5 at third place with $4.8 million, bringing it to $437.9 million domestically and $820.1 million worldwide.  Wakanda Forever is the 3rd biggest movie domestically of 2022 and the 6th biggest movie worldwide for 2022.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Babylon rounded out the top 5, both movies losing business from last weekend.  I Wanna Dance With Somebody currently has $14.6 million domestically for two weeks out while Babylon has barely over $10 million.

Violent Night dropped out of the top 5, most likely thanks to the Christmas holiday being wrapped up and its availability on PVOD.  It has made $47.5 million domestically and $73.3 million worldwide.

The Way of Water took the Per Theater average for the weekend as well, with $15,907 in each of the 4,202 theaters it was playing in.