Exhibitor Relations, a market observer, reported Sunday that “Avatar: The Way of Water” showed no signs of giving up its dominance at the box office, earning an estimated $19.7 million in its sixth weekend of release in North America.
With total ticket sales of $598 million domestically and $1.42 billion internationally, the James Cameron sci-fi epic easily surpassed the $2 billion milestone globally, setting a record for the pandemic age.
With the original “Avatar” still the all-time leader by $1.5 billion, the Disney/20th Century picture is only the sixth movie to cross the $2 billion mark (without accounting for inflation).
Showing considerable buoyance after five weeks out, Universal’s family-friendly “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” rose one spot from last weekend to place second, at $11.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
“M3GAN,” a terrifying doll horror from Universal and Blumhouse Productions, dropped one position to $9.8 million. The doll in the movie’s title, made to accompany a young orphan, gradually develops a spooky personality of her own.
Sony’s most recent film, “Missing,” came in at number four with $9.3 million. Nia Long plays the mother of Storm Reid’s character, a teenager who is frantic to find her mother after she vanishes while on vacation in Colombia. David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research called that opening “impressive” for a crime thriller, adding, “The reviews are excellent.”
And in fifth, down one spot from last weekend, was Sony’s feel-good “A Man Called Otto,” at $9 million. Tom Hanks plays the title curmudgeon, a character based on popular Swedish novel “A Man Called Ove.”
