A $64 million post-Christmas, final-weekend of the year take certifies James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” as the final blockbuster of 2025, as it hurtles past the $200 million mark — $214 million taken in by midnight Sunday, reports TheNumbers.com.
It did $24 million Christmas Day alone.
That $64 million is a little less than “Avatar: The Way of Water” earned on its second weekend, so “Ash” is still on pace to come in well under the $688 million 2022’s “Way of Water.” But dropping 30-36% weekend to weekend means it’ll have legs until Oscar nominations are announced.
Awards season won’t give it a boost. It’s mediocre.
Disney’s animated“Zootopia 2” is holding firm in second place, collecting another $20 million. It’s cleared the $300 million mark and may reach $400 million before leaving theaters, simply via lack of family film competition other than “Spongebob” and “David.”
Over hyped awards contender“Marty Supreme“ opens wide — finally — with a $25 million dollar (five day Christmas) weekend, It didn’t quite earn $10 million Christmas Day and is looking at a $17.5 million three day weekend. Timothee Chalamet is finally box office. This ping pong hustler film is easily out-earning his turn as Bob Dylan last year.
Fourth place was a battle between holdover “The Housemaid“ and Sony’s“Anaconda” reboot as a horror/action comedy. Neither film is all that, but “Housemaid” managed $15.4 with Christmas Day release “Anaconda” selling $14.5 million worth of tickets.
“Anaconda” is downright awful. I sat in a showing of it that was full enough that you’d expect to hear at least a few laughs, had anything about it worked. Nothing did. If it wasn’t the dead of winter, I’d have heard crickets.
In sixth place, a pretty good animated faith-based musical “David” added another $12.8. It will clear the $50 million mark by Monday and is holding onto audience, weekend to weekend, reasonably well.
“Spongebob Movie: The Search for Squarepants” added another $11.2 million.
That means that the Hugh Jackman/Kate Hudson musical bio-drama“Song Sung Blue,” the most audience friendly of the year-ending releases, didn’t crack the top…seven. The sentimental weeper is reaching an older audience, who sometimes take a while to get around to seeing a new film they’re interested in. But Neil Diamond devotees showed up to the tune of $7.6 million, $12 million since Christmas Day, only good enough for eighth place.
I saw that one with a third-full house Friday, “Anaconda” with a half-full house and “Marty Supreme” with a fourth of the seats filled.
“Wicked: For Good” has another weekend or two in the top ten, finishing ninth with a $5.2 million post-Christmas weekend. It’s earned over $330 million so far.
And “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” with over $118 million all-in in the bank, added $4.4 million to its coffers.
