After the holiday frenzy, the firstbig weekendof the year is thefour-day frameDuring Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the major new release this weekend, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, failed to impress, generating an estimated $13 million over the three-day period and $15 million for the extended holiday weekend (including Monday). This opening was only half of what 28 Years Later earned last year.WorldwideIt helped maintain some dignity, with a $31 million debut at the worldwide box office.
With 28 Years Later being the only real competition, you know what that means: Avatar: Fire and Ash remains #1 for the fifth consecutive weekend. The James Cameron film made $13.3 million over the weekend ($17.2 million when including Monday), bringing its domestic total to $367.4 million. At this stage in its release, Avatar: The Way of Water had made $571 million. However, with a worldwide total of $1.32 billion, Fire and Ash is performing well enough. Well enough for Cameron to proceed with Avatar 4 and Avatar 5? Likely, yes!
The rest of the chart remains quite familiar, with Zootopia performing exceptionally well (a 12% decline to $8.7 million during its eighth weekend), The Housemaid surpassing $100 million in domestic box office earnings, and Marty Supreme, with $79 million, becoming A24’s top-grossing film domestically. Meanwhile, last week’s new release, Primate, maintained a decent position for a horror movie, experiencing a 55% drop in its second weekend. The monkey-themed horror film earned $5 million ($6 million over the four-day weekend), pushing its ten-day total to $20 million.
It’s challenging to classify this as a true newcomer, but the other major release over the weekend was the extended version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which made $3.49 million ($4 million over four days). This is slightly less than the three-day opening of the anime, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, but I don’t believe this should be viewed as any sort of indicator for the franchise’s future. I’d say the upcoming “The Hunt for Gollum” remains a real unknown. We’ll need to wait for a trailer before we can get a clear sense of where the Lord of the Rings series is headed. While the prequel Hobbit trilogy didn’t help the franchise, the box office earnings for those films still reached around $950 million.
Next week, the new action film featuring Chris Pratt, titled Mercy, will be released, along with the horror movie revival, Return to Silent Hill. Mercy is expected to earn $20 million, although I believe $15 million is more realistic. As for Return to Silent Hill, it might be fortunate to reach $10 million. If Mercy fails, there could be a small possibility that Avatar could maintain its sixth straight number one position, but I wouldn’t wager any money on that. I would advise you to bet on it, but not me.
Related: Box Office Update: Avatar Secures Four Consecutive Wins