American movie theaters are experiencing a real slump. Luckily, that will change in the coming week with the spectacle “Avatar: Creature of Water.” Before that can happen, however, movie theaters must survive the second worst weekend of the year.
Only $38 million was left at the box office from Friday to Sunday, accordance to the report from Deadline website. Only in late January were the weekend results worse ($34.9 million).
In such conditions, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” managed to remain at top. At a 37 percent drop, the spectacle raked in $11.1 million. Thus, the movie became the third premiere this year to earn at least $400 million in US theaters.
This coming week, it will overtake “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and, for a while at least, will take over second place on the list of this year’s all-time blockbusters.
2022 Films With Over $100 Million Revenues
| # | TITLE | EARNED IN TOTAL | OPENLY | NUMBER OF CINEMAS | PREMIERE | VOD | BUDGET |
| 1 | Top Gun: Maverick | $718.5 | $126.7 | 4,751 | 27.05 | 23.08 | $170 |
| 2 | Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness | $411.3 | $187.4 | 4,534 | 6.05 | 22.06 | $200 |
| 3 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $409.8 | $181.3 | 4,396 | 11.11 | n/a | $250 |
| 4 | Jurassic World: Dominion | $376.0 | $145.1 | 4,697 | 10.06 | 15.07 | $185 |
| 5 | Minions: The Rise of Gru | $369.5 | $107.0 | 4.427 | 1.07 | 2.08 | $85 |
| 6 | Batman | $369.3 | $134.0 | 4.417 | 4.03 | 18.04 | $200 |
| 7 | Thor: Love and Thunder | $343.3 | $144.2 | 4.375 | 8.07 | 8.09 | $250 |
| 8 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | $190.9 | $72.1 | 4.258 | 8.04 | 24.05 | $90 |
| 9 | Black Adam | $166.9 | $67.0 | 4.402 | 21.10 | 22.11 | $200 |
| 10 | Elvis | $151.0 | $31.2 | 3,932 | 24.06 | 9.08 | $85 |
| 11 | Uncharted | $148.6 | $44.0 | 4.275 | 18.02 | 26.04 | $120 |
| 12 | Not! | $123.3 | $44.4 | 3.807 | 22.07 | 26.08 | $68 |
| 13 | Buzz Lightyear | $118.3 | $50.6 | 4.255 | 17.06 | 3.08 | $200 |
| 14 | smile | $105.9 | $22.6 | 3.659 | 30.09 | 15.11 | $17 |
| 15 | The Lost City | $105.3 | $30.5 | 4.283 | 25.03 | 10.05 | $74 |
| 16 | Bullet Train | $103.3 | $30.0 | 4,357 | 5.08 | 27.09 | $90 |
*The number are in million dollars
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also marks the first time in four years (and “Black Panther”) that a movie has held the number one spot five weeks in a row.
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Five times number one was later held by “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but the movie accomplished this by losing the lead position for a while.
Neither of the week’s premieres went into wide distribution, and thus did not appear in the top ten. We do have a new title in it, though.
It’ a melodrama about dying named “Spoiler Alert.” The movie increased its reach from 6 to 783 theaters, which resulted in an increase in receipts of more than 740%. Consequently, it ranked tenth with a score of $700,000. A spot higher was the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of the show “The Hours.” It earned $791 thousand.
With the lack of news, those few viewers who decided to go to the cinema were catching up. That’ why almost all the films in the top ten recorded small declines. The exceptions were “I Heard the Bells,” targeted at Christian audiences, which lost 62%.
US Box Office December 9-11 Top 10
| # | TITLE | EARNED OVER THE WEEKEND | EARNED IN TOTAL | WEEK ON SCREEN | CINEMA |
| 1 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $11.1 | $409.81 | 5 | 3725 |
| 2 | wild night | $8.7 | $26.69 | 2 | 3723 |
| 3 | Strange world | $3.6 | $30.45 | 3 | 3560 |
| 4 | Menu | $2.7 | $29.03 | 4 | 2710 |
| 5 | devotion | $2.0 | $16.97 | 3 | 3458 |
| 6 | Black Adam | $1.34 | $166.87 | 8 | 2143 |
| 7 | The Fabelmans | $1.18 | $7.33 | 5 | 973 |
| 8 | Met Opera: The Hours | $0.79 | $6.04 | 3 | 2727 |
| 9 | And Heard the Bells | $0.75 | $4.07 | 2 | 1180 |
| 10 | Spoiler Alert | $0.7 | $0.8 | 2 | 783 |
On the other end were “The Fabelmans.” Steven Spielberg’s latest work lost only 7% and maintained weekend receipts above $1 million.
But the highlight of the weekend turned out to be a film that is not in the top ten. “Whale” made its debut in six theaters. It made $360,000 in them.
This gave the highest average per theater this year – $60 thousand. Previous record belonged to “Everything Everywhere at Once” and was $50.1 thousand. The two titles are distributed in America by A24.
The only release of the coming week will be “Avatar: The Way of Water” Everybody is expecting the best opening this year with this movie.
