Nor’easter Forcing Movie Theater Closures During Already Dismal Box Office Weekend

third-highest grossing film in American box office history, passing the $760.5 million run of James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Though the two films came out 12 years apart and under dramatically different circumstances for movie theaters, both were able to take advantage of a lack of competition and overwhelmingly strong word-of-mouth to bring moviegoers back again and again for repeat viewings. While “Avatar” started with a modest opening and then continued to reign as No.

Sony will release it’s first movie of 2022, and second Tom Holland title after Spider-Man: No Way Home over the 4-day Presidents Day weekend, Uncharted, in what is expected to be a $70M+ haul worldwide.

Two months after its release, the latest Spider-Man movie is still making history.

Though the two films came out 12 years apart and under dramatically different circumstances for movie theaters, both were able to take advantage of a lack of competition and overwhelmingly strong word-of-mouth to bring moviegoers back again and again for repeat viewings. While “Avatar” started with a modest opening and then continued to reign as No.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Spider-Man: No Way Home” has officially unseated director James Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction epic “Avatar” to become the third-highest grossing domestic release in history.After weeks of speculation over whether or not Peter Parker had the legs to bump the people of Pandora from bronze, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” collected the remaining $1 million on Monday to push “Avatar” — and its mighty $760.5 million at the North American box office — to fourth place in the record books.Sony’s latest Spidey adventure, a culmination to Tom Holland’s web-slinging trilogy, has grossed a stunning $760.9 million at the domestic box office since launching exclusively in theaters in December. Those ticket sales are three times as much as the next highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, which is Disney and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” with $224 million.

According to early industry estimates this morning, Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has beat the $760.5M take of James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi spectacle Avatar to become the third highest grossing movie at the domestic box office with an estimated running total of $760.9M. This feat comes after a solid $1.6M Valentine’s Day haul for the Jon Watts-directed, Tom Holland-Zendaya-Benedict Cumberbatch starring movie at 3,300 theaters. Sony has yet to make the record official this morning.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“The Battle at Lake Changjin II” passed $500 million in total sales and remained unchallenged atop the mainland Chinese box office over the latest weekend.Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed no positional change among the top five films on a weekend that came a week after the Chinese New Year holiday wound down. Bona’s “Lake Changjin II” earned $43.5 million over the Friday to Sunday weekend, ahead of comedy “Too Cool to Kill” with $37.3 million over the same three days. In third place over the weekend was drama “Nice View” with $21.6 million and animation “Boonie Bears: Back to Earth” with $14.0 million.

J. Kim Murphy There’s a battle between love and “Death” at this weekend’s domestic box office, as the Jennifer Lopez rom-com “Marry Me” and Kenneth Branagh’s follow-up to his 2017 whodunnit “Murder on the Orient Express” both attempt to lure older audiences back to movie theaters in their openings.

The Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Poirot murder mystery is a follow-up to “Murder on the Orient Express,” which was released by 20th Century Fox prior to the Disney acquisition in November 2018 and opened to $28.6 million largely off of turnout from moviegoers over the age of 50. Such turnout was not expected for “Nile” given the pandemic.Reception for “Death on the Nile” has been mildly positive with a 65% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B from audiences on CinemaScore, the latter of which was the same grade given to “Orient Express.” “Nile” is one of the last pre-acquisition projects from Fox to be released by Disney, with “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” coming out on Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday AM Update: Refresh for more analysis and chart Two major studios this weekend took a bold swing and decided to go after the challenged older female demo over Valentine’s Day weekend in a continued pandemic, and while the results were in line with projections, they wouldn’t be anything to brag about in a pre-pandemic marketplace. It’s also the hardest weekend for moviegoing with Super Bowl on Sunday.

Just as President Biden’s top medical adviser Anthony Fauci is declaring that the U.S. is exiting “the full-blown pandemic phase” of Covid, three studios are hoping to lure out adult audiences, largely women who’ve been slow to return to cinemas.

Neon’s racked up a few bests this weekend with a cume of $135,042 at four NY/LA theaters for a popping per screen average of $33,768.

Jackass is still a hit!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAfter living through a pandemic for nearly two years, Americans, as it turns out, were in desperate need of a laugh.That may explain why Paramount’s go-for-broke action comedy “Jackass Forever” triumphed at the domestic box office while Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic “Moonfall” turned into an epic disaster.“Jackass Forever,” the fourth installment in the ongoing saga of projectiles to the groin, collected $23 million from 3,604 North American locations in its debut, landing on the higher end of expectations. The latest “Jackass,” starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man and other daredevils from MTV days, had been widely expected to win the weekend, but its victory is still surprising and impressive because it has been some time since a pure comedy has claimed the top spot on box office charts.

Jo Koy’s movie Easter Sunday, which was scheduled to open roughly two weeks before Easter weekend on April 1, is heading to Aug. 5.

Everyone figured that Lamar Odom would probably talk about his ex-wife Khloe Kardashian at some point during his stay in the Celebrity Big Brother house, but it happened sooner than most thought it would!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterWill this be the weekend that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is dethroned at the box office once and for all?Paramount’s go-for-broke action comedy “Jackass Forever” and director Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic “Moonfall” certainly hope that’s the case. After an excruciatingly slow January at the movies, one that let “Spider-Man” tower over the competition for weeks, the two nationwide releases will try their hand at getting audiences to multiplexes.“Jackass Forever,” the fourth installment in the ongoing saga of projectiles to the groin, appears to have the best shot at taking down “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which has spent six of the last seven weeks at No. 1.

After being forced to sit out the annually lucrative Chinese New Year period as the Covid crisis was just beginning in 2020, Chinese box office blasted to an all-time high during the comparable 2021 session. This week, the Year of the Tiger will be ushered in beginning February 1 with eight movies poised to potentially set new records. Projections are in the RMB 7B-8B+ range ($1.1B-$1.26B). Last year in the world’s biggest box office market, the week-long holiday reached RMB 7.8B ($1.2B at historical rates).