Netflix Record $15M First Week Of ‘Glass Onion’: What It Means For Box Office, Streaming & How It Came To Be

Welcome back, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here. Christmas is just around the corner now but the news doesn’t let up. Let’s begin.

Taking a look ahead to 2023, Gower Street Analytics is projecting global box office to hit $29B, repping a 12% gain on 2022 should this year remain on track for approximately $25.8B. The London-based firm estimates 2022 receipts stood at $23.6B as of December 10. 

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.

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.

And so it begins. Thirteen years after the first Avatar arrived in movie theaters, conquered and continued to conquer the global box office as the highest release of all-time with $2.9 billion worldwide, Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the James Cameron directed 3x Oscar winning 3D sci-fi movie arrives with a global outlook of $525M in what is Disney’s widest global release ever at 52K screens, surpassing Avengers: Endgame.

On the final weekend before Avatar: The Way of Water dominates screens globally, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to lead the worldwide and international box office. The fifth session for the sequel added $11.8M in 50 overseas markets, lifting the offshore cume to $358M and global to $767.8M.

Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale from A24 swam to the biggest limited opening of the year in NY and LA this weekend, beating the per screen record set by in late spring by the indie distributor’s Everything, Everywhere All At Once.

Akin to domestic, it was a rather sleepy weekend at the international box office. Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever again won the frame, with $20.2M from 50 overseas markets for an offshore total of $339.3M and a global tally of $733M through Sunday.

We’ve already gotten the Gotham Awards and have seen the New York Critics Circle announce their winners. As we start the final countdown of 2022, many of us continue to play desperate catch-up of the year’s best, making the prospect of an entire month worth of new releases daunting.

Audiences expected Rian Johnson to deliver in 2019 with his sleuth comedy “Knives Out.” But nobody expected the film to become a runaway hit. In short, the film raked at the box office, making $311 million on a $40 million budget.

Here’s another bucket of cold water for the budding romance between Netflix and exhibitors.

In its third weekend, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to reign at the global and international box office. With a $32.1M offshore frame (-53%), the sequel has an overseas total of $308M for $675.6M worldwide through Sunday.

, and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara. After seeing Glass Onion, I am convinced that there is a new iconic performance to add to the list: Kate Hudson as Birdie Jay.In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Hudson has scene-stealing comedic delivery, effortless charisma, and exceptional character work.

Let’s start with The Beatles. At the end of 1968 the Fab Four released The White Album, which would become tabloid-notorious within a year because some hippie cult leader named Charles Manson sent his followers on a killing spree under the guise of the hidden meanings he’d uncovered in their songs. What no one really remembers nowadays, though, is that there was already a track on that album aimed squarely at the kind of weirdos who looked for hidden meanings in Beatles songs.

The long awaited James Cameron sequel to the highest grossing movie of all-time hit tracking this morning with a projected opening of at least $150M. Tracking has it higher near $175M, but rivals are bullish at $200M.