Director M. Night Shyamalan delivered the seventh number one debut of his career, even though his latest thriller fell short of projections. After a $5.4 million opening day (including Thursday previews), Knock at the Cabin is expected to gross $14.2 million in its first weekend at the domestic box office, becoming the first film to push holdover hit Avatar: The Way of Water out of the top spot. This is around half-a-million lower than Friday estimates, and way less than the $25 million debut that the most bullish predictions were suggesting.
This is also lower than the $16.8 million three-day haul that Shyamalan’s last feature, Old, pulled in 2021 — and this was at a more precarious time during the pandemic. With a C CinemaScore from opening day audiences — a notch lower than Old — it remains to be seen how Knock at the Cabin will fare in the long run, especially with a big new Marvel movie around the corner.
Universal has had a rather spectacular run with smaller horror titles over the last year or so, with The Black Phone, Halloween Ends, and more recently, M3GAN. Knock at the Cabin is trailing each of those movies. But Shyamalan has been having a quietly successful run in the last few years. He’s cracked a winning business model, and all said and done, Knock at the Cabin has comfortably crossed its reported $20 million budget at the worldwide box office already. The film added $7 million from overseas markets, taking its running global total to $21.2 million.
But the film only narrowly edged out 80 for Brady, which was given a theatrical run by Paramount after initially being destined for streaming. The sports comedy starring icons Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno made $12.5 million in its opening weekend, successfully drawing older audiences to theaters. It has become clear in the last few months that the demographic had been underserved during the pandemic years, and was more reticent about returning to the cinemas than younger crowds. But the success of the four-quadrant hit Top Gun: Maverick, and the more adult-skewing Elvis and A Man Called Otto has proven that older folks remain hungry for films that speak to them.
The third spot went to The Way of Water, which added $10.8 million in its eighth weekend, taking its running domestic total to a staggering $636 million. Globally, director James Cameron’s science-fiction sequel is at $2.174 billion, and at number four on the all-time list. Overtaking Cameron’s own Titanic on the all-time list is beginning to look a little dicey, though, considering that Titanic is getting a re-release next week, which will only increase the gap between the two movies. Either way, there’s no denying that Cameron is the undisputed king of the box office, with three films in the top four.
The fourth and fifth spots went to Universal’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Fathom’s The Chosen: Season 3 Finale — with $7.9 million and $7 million, respectively. The Last Wish also passed the $150 million mark at the domestic box office this weekend, and $350 million at the global box office.
Disney’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is expected to finish at the pole position when it debuts. You can watch our interview with Shyamalan here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.