As Disney/20th Century’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” works to reach a $2 billion global total, Universal/darkly Blumhouse’s comedic horror movie “M3GAN” has outperformed all expectations with a $30.2 million opening weekend from 3,509 theatres. This is a crucial support for the box office in the coming month.
The movie “M3GAN,” directed by Gerald Johnstone and co-produced by James Wan and his Atomic Monster Productions, opened to surprisingly positive reviews. It received a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers praising the movie’s blend of frights, dark humor, and knowingly absurd tone.
As a result, the movie attracted younger audiences and horror enthusiasts, with 62% of the opening weekend audience falling into the 18–35 age group and 53% of them being female. The audience analytics were mostly favorable, with a B on CinemaScore and a 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is typical for most horror films.
Before the opening weekend, “M3GAN” was expected to earn between $17 and $22 million, which would have been sufficient to cover the $12 million film’s $12 million budget. Instead, “M3GAN” is the first horror movie to have an opening of at least $30 million since the critically panned “The Devil Inside” in 2012. If word-of-mouth spreads, it may reach a $90-100 million domestic total. “M3GAN” has raked in $14.2 million from 35 foreign markets, bringing its early global tally to $45 million.
The movie theatre industry should benefit significantly from “M3GAN” as it struggles to survive what is anticipated to be a slow January. Overall weekend earnings have increased to about $107 million, an improvement of 70% over the $62 million overall total recorded in the first weekend of 2022 but still less than the $139 million received in the first weekend of 2019.
Naturally, “Avatar: The Way of Water” will remain the top attraction in January. With $517 million coming from the United States and Canada after it gained $45 million in its fourth weekend, Disney/20th Century has revealed that the movie has surpassed the $1.7 billion milestone and is currently ranked sixth on all-time box office rankings before inflation adjustment.
At this rate, “Avatar 2” will surpass “Spider-Man: No Way Home’s” $1.91 billion worldwide gross.
Become the most successful movie since the pandemic started and the sixth movie in history to earn $2 billion worldwide. With China’s COVID-afflicted population eliminated, the global fourth weekend total of $177.6 million represents barely a 30% decline from the New Year’s weekend.
Compared to New Year’s weekend, weekend gross receipts were up in 21 countries, particularly South American nations like Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. France saw the movie surpass the $100 million mark with a $107 million total, and Germany is not far behind with a $92 million capacity. With $122 million in Imax grosses to date, it is one of the top 5 highest-grossing movies in the premium format.
Avatar: The Way of Water continued its box office domination this weekend as it reached $1.7 billion globally, surpassing Jurassic World as the seventh-biggest film in history. https://t.co/tQiiYqjjAX pic.twitter.com/z2b5tCkgwy
— IGN (@IGN) January 9, 2023
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” from Universal/DreamWorks, came in third with third-weekend earnings of $13.1 million, bringing its domestic and global totals to $87.7 million and $197.4 million, respectively. Though most of its profits will probably come from post-theatrical revenue streams, the $90 million animated movie should at least break even in theatres.
Tom Hanks’ dramedy “A Man Called Otto” from Sony, released in 637 theatres and took in $4.2 million this weekend, is ranked fourth. Next weekend, Sony will release the movie on a national level. With $3.3 million, Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” rounds out the Top 5, bringing its total to $445 million domestically and $828 million internationally before its Disney+ release on February 1.
when M3gan did her second musical number: pic.twitter.com/5Z13dzz1oU
— alex (@alex_abads) January 8, 2023
A24’s “The Whale” is still doing well outside the Top 5, earning $1.5 million from 714 theatres to bring its domestic total to $8.9 million. The drama with Brendan Fraser in the lead made slightly more money throughout the weekend than Paramount’s failure “Babylon,” which had a larger screen count of 2,381 locations but added $1.43 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to just $13.5 million on a budget of $78 million.
Final Lines
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