It took weeks and weeks, but Avatar: Fire and Ash finally lost the top spot at the box office this weekend.
Amazon/MGM’s Mercy, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, managed to overcome poor reviews (including a brutal one from our own Tyler Nichols) to open with $11.2 million. That’s not a particularly strong debut for a movie led by Chris Pratt, and it’s right in line with Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk, which opened slightly higher with $11.5 million almost exactly a year ago.
While Mercy did come in a bit higher than we predicted earlier this week, it almost certainly opened well below Amazon/MGM’s expectations. The film is the first in a slate of ambitious, mostly original releases the studio has planned for the year, including Crime 101 and Masters of the Universe.
Of course, bad reviews weren’t the only factor hurting Mercy’s box office performance—though a B-minus CinemaScore certainly didn’t help. Severe winter storms crippled major population hubs from Texas to New England, forcing many theaters to close and limiting attendance nationwide.
So how did Avatar: Fire and Ash fare? In its sixth weekend, James Cameron’s sequel slipped to second place with $7 million, bringing its domestic total to $378 million. The film should get a boost in a few weeks thanks to Valentine’s Day, which is traditionally strong at the box office, but it now seems likely to finish its domestic run in the $420 million range.
While Cameron has acknowledged that the film needs to make a massive amount of money to justify Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, it’s difficult to imagine Disney not giving him the greenlight. In a relatively quiet theatrical marketplace, these films clearly continue to resonate with audiences.
Zootopia 2 held onto third place with $5.7 million, passing the $400 million mark domestically. Worldwide, the animated sequel has now earned over $1.7 billion. Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s sleeper hit The Housemaid added another $4.2 million, pushing its domestic total to an impressive $115 million. Overseas, it has cleared $250 million, making it Lionsgate’s biggest hit in quite some time—no wonder a sequel is already in development.
Unfortunately, Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple completely collapsed in its second weekend, suffering a disastrous 71% drop and earning just $3.6 million. Its domestic total now stands at only $20.7 million, a deeply disappointing result. Unless the film rallies overseas, the long-anticipated third installment doesn’t appear likely to happen—at least not theatrically.
A24’s Marty Supreme, buoyed by its Oscar nominations, expanded into IMAX this weekend (along with several 70mm locations) and earned another $3.5 million, dropping just 36%. That brings its domestic total to $86 million. It narrowly edged out Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill, which stumbled badly with a $2.6 million opening from 2,000 theaters, translating to a weak $1.6K per-screen average. Yikes.
Oscar nominations also boosted Hamnet, which saw its box office jump 48% from last weekend, earning $2 million for a $17 million domestic total. Fathom Events’ re-release of The Fellowship of the Ring added another $2 million this weekend, bringing its re-release total to $6.3 million and its lifetime domestic gross to $325 million. Rounding out the top ten was Primate, which earned $1.6 million for a $23 million total.
Next weekend brings the release of Sam Raimi’s Send Help. Will it be able to claim the top spot? Let us know in the comments!
