The day has finally come; Avatar: The Way of Water is on the verge of surrendering the crown that it has held on to for seven weekends in a row. Director James Cameron’s epic science-fiction sequel will likely slip to the third spot on the weekend box office chart for the first time since its release in December, as Universal’s Knock at the Cabin eyes a $14.5 million debut.
Director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller picked up $5.4 million on Friday, including Thursday previews, as it debuted in over 3,600 theaters nationwide. This is under the $6.8 million that the filmmaker’s last release, Old, made on its opening day in 2021. Old grossed $16.8 million in its debut weekend, on its way to a $48 million domestic and $89 million global finish. Knock at the Cabin was produced on pretty much the same budget — $20 million as compared to Old’s $18 million — so this looks like a modest-enough debut, although it's at least $5 million shy of projections earlier this week.
Shyamalan has been having a rather successful second innings as director, after experiencing critical and commercial rejection around a decade ago. His last four films have all been commercially successful, even if they haven’t managed to garner the sort of acclaim that some of his early hits did. The Twilight Zone-adjacent Knock at the Cabin earned a concerning C CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which might affect its performance in the long run. Regardless, this is Shyamalan’s seventh number one finish.
The film narrowly edged out Paramount’s 80 for Brady, which is drawing older audiences much like Sony’s A Man Called Otto did over the last month. The film made $4.7 million on Friday, including Thursday previews, and is expected to gross $13 million in its first weekend. Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno, 80 for Brady was pulled from a direct-to-streaming release, and managed to successfully attract its target demographic to the theaters — the breakdown shows that nearly half the film’s audience was over 55, and nearly 70% were women.
The Way of Water slipped to number three with a $2.4 million eighth Friday. The film is looking at a $10.2 million weekend, which will take its running domestic total to $635 million. Globally, the film is on the verge of overtaking Titanic’s lifetime haul to claim the third spot on the all-time list. Phenomenally, three of the top four highest-grossing movies of all time have been directed by Cameron.
The fourth and fifth spots went to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Fathom’s specialty release of The Chosen Season 3. Puss in Boots 2 picked up $1.69 million in its seventh weekend, for a projected weekend finish of $7.9 million. This will take its running domestic haul over $151 million, which is an excellent result for the animated sequel. The Chosen is looking at a $6.6 million debut weekend.
Overall business this weekend is projected to be in the $80 million range, which is a healthy 37% improvement over the same weekend last year. The next major movie lined up for release is Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is expected to deliver a $120 million debut according to very early projections. You can watch our interview with Shyamalan here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.