Lea Michele heads to Funny Girl after breaking the box office record for the August Wilson Theatre

After earning the highest grossing Tuesday of 2022 with $24.1M, 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water also notched the best Wednesday of the year yesterday with $20.4M beating Top Gun: Maverick‘s June 1 take of $14.8M, and Avatar 2‘s first Wednesday of $14.4M. At a running total of $337.9M through 13 days, the James Cameron directed, Jon Landau produced sequel is pacing 1% ahead of Top Gun: Maverick at the same point in time.

Any cynicism about a broken down Christmas box office, impacted by weather, was wiped away Tuesday as 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water racked up $23.8M sending its domestic cume to $317.1M. In addition, the sequel flew past the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Director James Cameron has told the media that the breakeven point for Avatar: The Way of Water stands at $2 billion global mark.

Never bet against James Cameron, they said. And while “Avatar: The Way Of Water” got off to somewhat of a slow box office start—or at least it fell under some of the early projections which made pundits quickly skeptical of its chances—the Cameron maxim seems to be coming true.

Coming out of its second weekend, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has banked an estimated $855.4M globally through Sunday. The sophomore session added $168.6M at the international box office in 52 markets for a $601.7M running cume.

Express.co.uk that he once interviewed All I Want For Christmas Is You singer Mariah Carey, 52, while speaking at the Ideal Home Show, in partnership with NatWest.The Good Morning Britain Entertainment Editor then went on to reveal whether the star deserved the “diva” reputation she has been branded with in the past.After being referred to as “high maintenance” for many years, the star has since confirmed she “doesn’t care” about that aspect of her reputation, even laughingly embracing the term. However Richard, who comes across plenty of high-profile celebrities through his ITV job, had a different take on the singer. Asked about the most surprising interview he’s ever had, Richard said: “Honestly, there have been so many. “Personal favourites include Dolly Parton, Celine Dion… And Mariah Carey was great - not a hint of a diva at all!”Richard has been the Entertainment Editor on ITV’s Good Morning Britain since 2014 and has been working in showbiz for over two decades. He went on to reveal that another favourite interview of his was with legendary musician Tony Bennett.“Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand were two notable interviews because I'm such a huge fan,” Richard explained. “I had a lovely time in Tony Bennett's apartment in New York.

While theaters are still recovering from the pandemic directly impacting attendance and box office outcomes, there are still really great movies struggling to find audiences outside of streaming and VOD options when they are released in theaters. Some smaller to mid-range pictures, mainly horror, have done better than expected in the shadow of the $100-200 million-dollar budgeted blockbusters that seemingly come out round-year now.

We’re hearing that bad weather in the Midwest significantly impacted Thursday grosses with Winter Storm Elliott intensifying into a bomb cyclone. As of this morning, more than 1 million customers are without power across the country, around 4K flights canceled and wind chill in the -20 to -30 degree range as the country gets hammered by severe winter conditions.

Indonesian movies had racked up close to 55 million admissions in their home market as of December 18, according to local box office analyst Bicara Box Office, overtaking the previous record of 51.9 million admissions set in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. 

Former Glee stars and longtime friends Lea Michele and Darren Criss have reunited once again for a special Christmas edition of Apple TV+’s Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

With strong and consistent mid-weeks, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has crested the $600M mark worldwide. This comes after it rapidly passed $500M global earlier this week, following its $441.6M opening weekend. The current worldwide total through Wednesday is $609.7M including $426.8M from the international box office.

20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water made $14.3M yesterday at 4,202 theaters, ranking it as the second best Wednesday of 2022 after Top Gun: Maverick‘s $14.8M on June 1. Avatar 2‘s first Wednesday also outstripped that of Minions: Rise of Gru ($13.5M, July 6) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s first and second Wednesdays($8.1M Nov 16 and $10M on Nov. 23).

20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water‘s Tuesday box office is looking at $17M, and could possibly topple Minions: Rise of Gru‘s first Tuesday of $17.5M to become the best Tuesday of 2022.

Lea Michele's Funny Girl has broken a Broadway all-time box office record.The former Glee star, who took over the role of Fanny Brice in July, saved the show from critically panned star Beanie Feldstein.The Broadway revival's gross for the eight-performance ending December 18 was $2,005,696.80, which is the highest gross for the production and for August Wilson Theatre, according to Just Jared.  The latest: Lea Michele's Funny Girl has broken a Broadway all-time box office recordFunny Girl broke the record previously set by Mean Girls, which had a house record of $1,994,386 - from 2018.Lea's first performance was on September 6, after taking over the role from Beanie Feldstein.

Funny Girl broke a house record with more than $2 million in receipts at the August Wilson Theatre, A Beautiful Noise continued its $1 million-plus weekly take, and The Piano Lesson topped the list of highest-grossing non-musical productions with $914,752, each contributing to Broadway’s $37M box office tally for the week ending Dec. 18.

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed $497.1M globally through Monday, well on its way across the half a billion mark worldwide when Tuesday’s take is tallied. 

Christmas weekend is definitely Avatar: The Way of Water‘s to win at the box office, however, how big or small that is remains the question especially this early in the week. At the bare minimum, the 20th Century Studios/Disney movie should secure $60M-$65M for the 3-day and $90M-$95M for the 4-day. That’s on par with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which played into its second weekend in a year when Christmas fell on a Sunday. Avatar 2 made $16M yesterday, with a Sunday to Monday decline at -56% which was similar to Rogue One‘s -54%. Rogue One‘s first Monday was $17.5M. Some rivals won’t be surprised if Avatar 2 touches $100M over its four-day run. Through four days, Avatar 2 counts just over $150M.

The Walt Disney Studios officially has crossed $4 billion for 2022, making it the No. 1 studio in the running for this year’s worldwide box office. This occurs as 20th Century Studios’ James Cameron sequel Avatar: The Way of Water is about cross a half-billion worldwide.

EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing from our sources that James Cameron’s sequel to his highest grossing movie in the world, Avatar: The Way of Water, is currently on its way to a $17M Thursday night from showtimes that began at 7PM.

In what was perhaps the greatest robbery of the decade, Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” received a grand total of zero nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards. Boasting an impressive score of 89 on Metacritic, the film topped many critics’ end-of-year lists, even winning the NYFCC’s Best Film award, and developed a small—predominantly indie—following after its VOD distribution in July 2020.

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water began its international box office rollout today in such majors as Korea, France, Germany and Italy — and with early sneaks in China. One of the most anticipated movies of recent years, it’s dominating play.