Box Office Round-Up ~ 12/12/22

By: [email protected] on

This weekend narrowly avoided being the worst one of the year at the box office, though becoming merely the second-worst weekend is something of a dubious honor. As movie theaters and audiences hold their collective breath for Avatar: The Way of Water on December 16th, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever took the number one spot at the box office for a fifth weekend in a row, with $11.1 million. Having cleared $400 million domestically, the Marvel Studios sequel is on track to become the fifth-highest grossing film of 2022… or sixth, assuming Avatar does the numbers everyone expects.

The rest of the top five was, as predicted, more or less the same as last weekend in the absence of any new wide releases. Violent Night grossed a solid $8.7 million, putting on a similar overall track as fellow R-rated Christmas movie Krampus, which ended up with a worldwide gross of $61.5 million back in 2015.

Strange World only dropped 29% since last weekend, but the damage has already been done for Disney’s big-budget animated sci-fi adventure. Its domestic has only just cleared $30 million, and while it may find a second life when it reaches streaming, it’s one of the worst flops of the year.

Once again, The Menu and Devotion rounded out the top five, with a respective $2.7 million and $2 million. Those are solid numbers for the former (a $30 million budgeted dark comedy thriller), but disappointing ones for the latter (a big budget war epic).

Of note outside the top five, A24’s The Whale debuted with $360,000 on just six screens, surpassing Everything Everywhere All at Once (also from A24) for the best per-theater average of 2022. The Darren Aronofsky-directed drama has generated Oscar buzz for lead actor Brendan Fraser. It expands its release on December 21st, and will be an arthouse title to watch.

1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($11.1 MM)
Director: Ryan Coogler (WME)
Writers: Ryan Coogler (WME), Joe Robert Cole (Circle of Confusion)
Cast: Letitia Wright (3.16)
        Lupita Nyong’o (CAA)
        Danai Gurira (UTA)

2. Violent Night ($8.7 MM)
Director: Tommy Wirkola (CAA)
Writers: Pat Casey (APA), Josh Miller (APA)
Cast: David Harbour (WME)
        John Leguizamo (UTA)
        Alex Hassell (Gersh)

3. Strange World ($3.6 MM)
Director: Don Hall, Qui Nguyen (Paradigm)
Writers: Qui Nguyen (Paradigm)
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (WME)
        Dennis Quaid (UTA)
        Jaboukie Young-White (WME)

4. The Menu ($2.7 MM)
Director: Mark Mylod (WME)
Writers: Seth Reiss (UTA), Will Tracy (WME)
Cast: Ralph Fiennes (42)
        Anya Taylor-Joy (CAA)
        Nicholas Hoult (UTA)

5. Devotion ($2 MM)
Director: J.D. Dillard (CAA)
Writers: Jake Crane (CAA), Jonathan Stewart
Cast: Jonathan Majors (WME)
       Glen Powell (CAA)
       Christina Jackson (Paradigm)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers