Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 1/17/2023

Hello everyone,

  • Once again, “Avatar: The Way of Water” took the top spot with approx. $31 (3-day) and approx. $40 (4-day holiday).  Although some people are saying it’s continuing to make more money because it’s retaining all the premium format screens (IMAX, Dolby Vision, 3D, etc) which theaters charge more for.  Although I don’t think there’s another movie playing right now that would look as impressive in IMAX or Dolby Vision.  “Puss In Boots 2” is also still doing well. After 4 weeks in theaters, it’s still #3 and it just passed $110 million at the domestic box office.  The new opening this week were the action movie “Plane” which was #5 with approx. $11 million for the 4-day, the “House Party” remake was #6 with approx. $4 million for the 4-day, and “A Man Called Otto” which expanded to more theaters this past weekend jumped up to #4 with about $16 million 4-day.
  • Worldwide box office “Avatar: The Way of Water” just crossed $1.9 billion and it’s about to pass “Spider Man: No Way Home” to be the #6 in the all-time worldwide box office.  This is due to the international total of $1.33 Billion.  Domestically, it’s not in the top 10 of the all-time domestic box office while “Spider Man No Way Home” is #3 with $814 million.
  • For Award Season, “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards while “The Fabelmans” won best drama and “The Banshees of Inisherin” won best comedy at the Golden Globes so no clear front runner there.  However, Cate Blanchett” won best actress at both (best actress drama at the Golden Globes), Angela Bassett won best supporting actress at both, and Ke Huy Quan won best supporting actor at both.  So, those are the leading candidates for Academy Award wins. 
  • For the first time since 2019, Marvel movies will be playing in China starting next month.  They just announced the China release dates for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” AND “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”.  “Black Panther” will open on Feb 7 and then “Ant Man and The Wasp” will open 10 days later on Feb 17.  Last year there was talk about an unofficial ban on Marvel movies in China but apparently the rumors aren’t true or they changed their mind.  The China release date is expected to increase the “Blank Panther: Wakanda Forever” box office A LOT.  The worldwide box office for the movie is currently $835 million (#6 of the top worldwide grosses for 2022).

Little bit of humor:

It’s a good question.  R2D2 remembered Leia but didn’t remember Anakin in Episode 4.