James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water continued to dominate the box-office charts, taking in an estimated $15.7 million this weekend in North American theaters to make it the fourth-leading global grosser of all time.
The Disney/20thCentury sci-fi film, “has been #1 for seven straight weeks… a feat that hasn’t been accomplished” since Cameron issued the original Avatar in 2009, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said on Twitter.
Hefty results from theaters around the world – including $237 million in ticket sales in China – helped boost The Way of Water to fourth place globally all-time at $2.117 billion, unadjusted for inflation.
That means Cameron now has his name on three of the four top grossers ever: the original Avatar, Titanic, and The Way of Water (Avengers: Endgame from Disney and Marvel sneaks in at second).
In second place for the North American weekend was Universal’s family-friendly Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, at $10.6 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
In third, up two spots from last weekend, was Sony’s feel-good A Man Called Otto, at $6.8 million. Tom Hanks plays the title curmudgeon in the adaptation of Swedish novel A Man Called Ove.
Scary-doll thriller M3GAN from Universal and Blumhouse Productions took in $6.4 million to place fourth. It has an android doll, created as a companion to a young orphan, turning steadily creepier.
And Yash Raj Films’ new action thriller Pathaan placed fifth at $5.9 million, an impressive North American total for a Hindi-language film. It stars Shah Rukh Khan, known as the “King of Bollywood,” in a story about spies, rogue agents, and a deadly lab-generated virus.