With a weekend gross of $11.1M, BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER has finished in the top spot on the box office charts for all five weeks since it opened. In fact, it is the only movie to have accomplished this feat in 2022. Ironically, the original BLACK PANTHER was the last movie outside of the pandemic period to achieve box office dominance for five consecutive weeks, on top from 2/16/2018 through 3/18/2018.
WAKANDA FOREVER now stands at $410M, which is 69% of BLACK PANTHER’s gross of $595M over its first 31 days. Even though it has topped the charts during this period and will likely wind up with a total of $435M for its theatrical run, Disney and exhibitors wish it could have done more. Its five-week winning streak will end next weekend with the highly-anticipated opening of James Cameron’s AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER.
Universal’s dark comedy VIOLENT NIGHT finished in second place with $3.7M, a drop of only 35% from last week’s opening numbers. With a modest production budget of $20M, VIOLENT NIGHT will be a very profitable movie and provide a helpful holiday boost to exhibitors. It will continue to draw audiences through the end of the year and reach a total domestic gross of $40M – $50M.
Disney’s STRANGE WORLD finished in third place, with a weekend gross of $3.6M, which was 29% lower than last weekend’s gross. THE MENU finished in fourth place, with $2.7M and a drop of 22%, while DEVOTION landed in fifth place, with $2M in new ticket sales and a drop of 27%.
The only new title that opened this weekend at a significant number of locations was Focus Features’ SPOILER ALERT which played at 783 theatres. The dramedy tells the story of a same-sex couple in a long-term relationship and the challenges they manage when one of them falls ill. SPOILER ALERT brought in $700K for an average per location of only $894 and a tenth-place finish.
Our spotlight on limited-run, independent films turns to A24’s THE WHALE, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Brendan Fraser. THE WHALE tells the story of a reclusive and severely obese English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his stranded teenage daughter. It generated an impressive $60K average per theatre by grossing $360K at only six locations.
Even though Rotten Tomatoes shows a lukewarm 69% Tomatometer score from critics, many reviewers have praised Fraser’s performance as Oscar-worthy. THE WHALE will expand to reach many more locations in the weeks ahead and could emerge to become an important factor for exhibitors through Christmas, New Year’s, and into the new year.
The total for all movies this weekend was only $37M, making it the lowest gross since 1/28/2022 – 1/30/2022 when all titles earned $35.8M, led by SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, which earned $11M in its seventh week.
The real action will arrive next weekend when AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER opens, with hopes for a renaissance in moviegoing, perhaps to the blockbuster levels that James Cameron has delivered in the past with TITANIC and AVATAR.