‘Avatar’ sequel opens slightly below box office expectations
Yahoo Finance media reporter Allie Canal details the opening weekend results for James Cameron's "Avatar: The Shape of Water" and how film industry stocks are reacting.
Video Transcript
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DAVID BRIGGS: How you see the way of water depends upon if your glass half full or half empty type. On one hand, James Cameron's "Avatar" sequel came in below expectations. On the other, it crushed the original, which is the highest grossing film ever and even topped "Top Gun 2's" opening weekend, which is this year's. Box office champ Allie Canal here with her take. Which is it, Allie?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Well, if you're an investor, I think you're a little more pessimistic because Disney shares, they close at their lowest level since March 2020 on the heels of this disappointment, down 4.8%. Now, the studio had anticipated a range between $135 million to $150 million for the domestic opening weekend. Industry analysts had anticipated even higher than that, $175 million plus.
But the result very much disappointed, $134 million domestically. Internationally, it was a bit better $300.5 million overseas. Now, industry executives, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond, he told Yahoo Finance he is not worried about this whatsoever. At the end of the day, this is a movie that was never going to be front loaded. That as the holiday season progresses, kids get off school, families make their plans, they will go and see this movie.
But it definitely puts the pressure on things a little bit to make sure that it does live up to those expectations. And we continue to see growth in weeks two, three, four, et cetera. But I do anticipate that this is nothing to worry about. Like you said, the original "Avatar," that debuted $77 million domestically, went on to become the highest grossing film of all time. Cameron's films, they really are like this. They don't have a ton of people rushing out in the beginning, like you normally see with the Marvel superhero film. So I do think that this is going to eventually come back on top in a way that exhibitors really appreciate.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: How big of an impact did China have on this opening, considering last original was a huge hit in China?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Huge in China. And the Chinese market they've been pretty restricted when it comes to the types of films that they're even greenlighting in the country. But this film delivered big in China, $57.1 million in opening weekend ticket sales. And that market, that was the top overseas market, for the sequel. Again, below expectations of around $100 million, but maybe that's because of what's going on in their COVID situation. Beijing has that zero-COVID policy. Cases are ticking very high in the country. So consumer behavior patterns might have changed there.
So industry insiders are really reassessing how the success will look like in China. Maybe more of an ebb and flow than what we previously anticipated. So the China market is going to be very important. In the original "Avatar," 200 million roughly came from China market. So hopefully, the sequel will continue to rack up those numbers overseas.
DAVID BRIGGS: I saw it. I loved it. It was an incredible theater experience. My 10-year-old liked it equally. So if you want to review, absolutely have to see this in the theater. By the way, IMAX is down. Cinemark is down. AMC is down. All of them got hammered on this under expectation. Allie, thank you.
