{"id":373527,"date":"2025-12-28T18:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373527\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T18:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:02:08","slug":"avatar-3-leads-christmas-marty-supreme-starts-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373527\/","title":{"rendered":"Avatar 3 Leads Christmas, Marty Supreme Starts Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s sci-fi threequel \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>\u201d remained comfortably atop the domestic box office over the Christmas stretch. Meanwhile a trio of new holiday releases, A24\u2019s sports dramedy \u201cMarty Supreme<\/a>,\u201d the Focus Features musical tear-jerker \u201cSong Sung Blue<\/a>\u201d and Sony\u2019s action comedy \u201cAnaconda,\u201d helped keep multiplexes bustling\u2026 but they weren\u2019t enough to fend off the Disney animated sequel \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d which returned to No. 2 in its fifth weekend of release.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar 3\u201d added a solid $64 million over the traditional weekend and $88 million since the Christmas holiday on Thursday. The three-day figure is a scant 28% decline from its $89 million domestic debut, a stronger hold than its predecessor, 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Way of Water,\u201d which dropped by 52% after a larger $134 million debut.\u00a0So far, \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d has generated $217.7 million in North America and $760 million worldwide after two weekends of release. Based on past precedent, \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d should stick around at the top of box office charts well into the new year. After all the first two \u201cAvatar\u201d films were No. 1 for seven consecutive weekends, eventually earning well over $2 billion each. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMarty Supreme\u201d enjoyed the best debut among newcomers in third place with $17.4 million from 2,600 theaters over the weekend and $27.1 million through the four-day holiday frame. Domestic ticket sales stand at $28.3 million after a weekend in limited release. The three-day figure marks the second-biggest opening weekend to date for A24, the beloved indie behind \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once,\u201d \u201cHereditary\u201d and \u201cLady Bird.\u201d Alex Garland\u2019s \u201cCivil War\u201d remains the studio\u2019s best debut with $25 million over the traditional three-day weekend. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d the stellar start can be attributed to director Josh Safdie for making a movie that\u2019s resonating with audiences, as well as star Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, who plays a fictional tennis table champ and has been a\u00a0one-man marketing machine<\/a>, going to great lengths \u2014\u00a0and heights<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to get out the word about the original film. A24 spent roughly $70 million to produce \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d which is expected to remain a box office draw due to positive reviews and great word-of-mouth. Moviegoers \u2014 roughly 65% of whom were 35 or younger \u2014 gave the R-rated film a \u201cB+\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls. That\u2019s a far better reception than the \u201cC+\u201d grade that was bestowed upon Safdie\u2019s prior film, the deeply unsettling \u201cUncut Gems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSports dramas are not big movies to begin with, but the right cast can elevate them, says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. He\u2019s referring to films like \u201cF1: The Movie,\u201d starring Brad Pitt, and \u201cAir,\u201d led by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. \u201cTimoth\u00e9e Chalamet is making that kind of difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnaconda\u201d landed at No. 5 with $14.6 million over the weekend and $23.7 million since Christmas. A $45 million-budgeted meta-reboot, \u201cAnaconda\u201d stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd as best friends who travel to the jungle to pursue their childhood dream of remaking their all-time favorite movie, 1997\u2019s \u201cAnaconda.\u201d The project starts to unravel when life imitates art and a real anaconda begins hunting them down. Critics and audiences were mixed on \u201cAnaconda,\u201d which has a 51% Rotten Tomatoes average and \u201cB\u201d grade on CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d opened in eighth place with $7.6 million over the weekend and $12 million through the four-day holiday frame. Craig Brewer directed the $30 million-budgeted movie, featuring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson in the true story of two down-on-their luck musicians who form a Neil Diamond tribute band. Opening weekend crowds dug the film, which earned an \u201cA\u201d grade on CinemaScore, the best marks among the new releases. In terms of ticket buyers, 65% were female while 53% of audiences were above the age of 55.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a crowd-pleaser, and word-of-mouth should build now among older moviegoers, who take their time getting to the cinema,\u201d Gross says.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile Disney\u2019s animated juggernaut \u201cZootopia 2\u201d outpaced the newcomers with $20 million over the weekend and $25.2 million since Christmas on Thursday. Since its debut around Thanksgiving, the PG film has generated $320 million domestically and $1.42 billion globally, making \u201cZootopia 2\u201d the highest-grossing Hollywood release of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother holdover, Lionsgate\u2019s psychological thriller \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d notched the No. 4 spot with $15.4 million over the weekend and $18.9 million through the four-day holiday period. The film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, has earned an impressive $46.6 million domestically and $64.9 million worldwide to date.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore to come\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2019s sci-fi threequel \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d remained comfortably atop the domestic box office over the Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5960,49,48,75,43424,114119],"class_list":{"0":"post-373527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-marty-supreme","13":"tag-song-sung-blue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}