‘Avatar 2’ Gains $56 Million in Storm-Hit Second Weekend

Winter storms in the US and Canada caused the movie to bring in an estimated $56 million in ticket sales.

The movie earned another $168.6 million in theaters internationally over the weekend, for a total haul of $855.4 million since it was released in December.

The company predicted that the film would make $82 million in the US over four days.

The movie easily topped the box office, but domestic ticket sales plummeted from its opening weekend. The Way of Water was expected to be more resilient than usual, according to executives at theater chains and Disney. There were storms that shut down some cinemas in the US.

The originalAvatar opened in 2009. It stayed at the top of the box office for seven weeks, making it the highest-grossing movie of all time. Word-of-mouth about the movie's 3D effects and fans who saw it multiple times helped it sell more tickets than any other movie.

The Way of Water production costs topped $350 million and was made with a massive budget by writer-director James CAMERON. Disney is going to release three more movies in the next ten years. It's not certain whether that investment will pay off.

While domestic box office receipts for The Way of Water came in below some estimates in its opening weekend, the film generated $50 million a day in ticket sales around the world, with many kids out of school and adults taking time off. Theatergoers are expected to come back in the coming weeks as the weather improves.

The weekend forecast has been cut by Disney.

There were three new movies in wide release this weekend. Universal Pictures' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish finished in second place with $11.35 million in North American ticket sales through Sunday.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody, a Sony Group movie about Whitney Houston, earned $5.3 million over the course of three days. A movie about the movie business in the 1920s opened in fourth place with $3.5 million.

Movie fans are still not coming back to theaters after the Pandemic-related closings. Films are appearing on streaming services more quickly than in the past, as media giants look to bulk up subscriptions to those services. People are conditioned to wait a few weeks to see a new movie.

With a few days left in the year, industrywide ticket sales are $7.2 billion, well below the $11.4 billion generated domestically.