A complete absence of competition ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water’s release next week has allowed fellow Disney hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to top the domestic box office for the fifth weekend in a row. The superhero sequel made an estimated $11 million this weekend, pushing its running domestic total to $409 million.
Wakanda Forever is now less than $2 million shy of passing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to become the biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe release of the year at the domestic box office. It recently overtook Thor: Love and Thunder both domestically and internationally. Wakanda Forever is also only the third movie to pass $400 million at the domestic box office this year, after Top Gun: Maverick and Doctor Strange 2.
The film’s $767 million running global cume, however, puts it far behind the $955 million that Doctor Strange 2 ultimately finished with. Wakanda Forever also trails the original Black Panther by a significant margin both globally and internationally. Directed by Ryan Coogler, the first Black Panther concluded its domestic run with $700 million, and made $1.3 billion globally.
After debuting with $13.3 million last weekend, Universal’s counter-programmer Violent Night took the second spot again with an estimated $8.7 million. The Christmas-themed action-comedy starring David Harbour as a tattooed Santa Claus has made over $26 million domestically so far. Disney’s latest animated title Strange World held on to the third spot, with an estimated $3.6 million from over 3,500 theaters this weekend. The film’s running domestic total of $30 million makes it one of the biggest flops of recent times. Produced on a reported budget of $180 million, Strange World is estimated to lose Disney $100 million.
Searchlight’s dark comedy The Menu took the fourth spot again, pulling $2.7 million this weekend for a running domestic total of just under $30 million. Produced on a reported budget of $30 million, the film has made over $50 million globally. But with a reported $90 million price-tag, Sony’s Korean War film Devotion is bombing with just $2 million in its third weekend, for a running domestic total of under $17 million.
Elsewhere, A24 notched another win in the specialty marketplace this year after debuting director Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale to the biggest per-theater average of 2022. The divisive drama starring Brendan Fraser grossed $360,000 from six theaters, for a per-theater average of 60,000.
Overall business this weekend has been tragic, with less than $39 million in total as The Way of Water literally scares away all competition ahead of its highly anticipated release next weekend. You can watch our interview with director James Cameron here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.