{"id":1780003,"date":"2022-12-19T06:30:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1780003"},"modified":"2022-12-19T09:48:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T14:48:43","slug":"avatar-the-way-of-water-hauls-in-53-million-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/avatar-the-way-of-water-hauls-in-53-million-opening-day\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAvatar: The Way of Water\u201d Hauls in $53 Million Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Favatar-the-way-of-water-hauls-in-53-million-opening-day%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1780003&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-8.33.52-AM.png?w=1000&#038;h=563&#038;crop=1\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tAfter years of development and production, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/james-cameron\/\" id=\"auto-tag_james-cameron\" data-tag=\"james-cameron\">James Cameron<\/a>\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d sequel has reached judgment day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tDisney and 20th Century Studios\u2019 \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d took flight at the box office with a solid $53 million gross from 4,202 locations in its opening day, a figure that includes $17 million in Thursday previews. That ranks as the sixth highest first-day domestic gross of the year, lower than those earned by \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness\u201d ($90.7 million), \u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever\u201d ($84.2 million), \u201cThor: Love and Thunder\u201d ($69.5 million), \u201cJurassic World Dominion\u201d ($59.5 million) and \u201cThe Batman\u201d ($56.6 million). It\u2019s also a good deal higher than the $26.7 million opening day that the first \u201cAvatar\u201d landed in 2009, though the sequel arrives with the benefit of Thursday previews and years of anticipation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tIt\u2019s all eyes on \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d as it hopes to mount a bountiful box office run; it isn\u2019t every weekend that theaters receive a sequel to the highest-grossing film ever. When the first \u201cAvatar\u201d landed a domestic opening of $77 million in 2009, many reports were underwhelmed by the initial performance, pointing to the film\u2019s highly mythologized production process and Cameron\u2019s superlative box office success with 1997\u2019s \u201cTitanic,\u201d then the highest-grossing film ever. But with premium format subcharges and phenomenal holds extending months later, \u201cAvatar\u201d stayed strong, eventually toppling \u201cTitanic\u201d to take on the all-time record. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tWith very little competition throughout the holidays, \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d hopes to mount a similar word-of-mouth driven blockbuster run. The film has received strong raves from some critics without being unanimously praised, currently holding a 73% approval rating from top critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. General audiences seem to be much more positive; the film earned an \u201cA\u201d grade through research firm Cinema Score, indicating strong approval among the first round of ticket buyers.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tIt isn\u2019t just a matter of seeing if Cameron\u2019s latest can fully justify its whopping reported $350 million production budget (much less match the financial success of his previous films). \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d comes at a time when exhibitors are thirsting for an event to drum up business through the holidays. Total box office grosses for the year will likely finish an alarming chunk down from pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019. And after an auspicious summer season featuring a variety of hits, theater foot traffic has dwindled through the fall season, with little other than \u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever\u201d really drawing crowds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tOn that topic, the superhero sequel is now the second-highest grossing film of the year at the domestic box office, surpassing the $411 million gross of its fellow Marvel entry \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.\u201d \u201cWakanda Forever\u201d should take a distant second on domestic charts this weekend, projecting a $5 million haul to pad its North American total gross to $418 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tUniversal\u2019s holiday action film \u201cViolent Night\u201d could contend with \u201cBlack Panther 2\u201d for silver. The film is also projecting roughly $5 million for the weekend, 42% down from its previous outing. Total domestic gross now stands at a solid $30 million for \u201cViolent Night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tDisney\u2019s \u201cStrange World\u201d looks to take fourth. After earning about $510,000 on Friday, domestic ticket sales now stand at roughly $30 million. It remains a disastrous performance for the animated adventure, which carries a reported $180 million production budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tSearchlight Pictures\u2019 \u201cThe Menu\u201d will round out the top five, projecting a $1.5 million haul in its fifth weekend of release. With more than $30 million in domestic ticket sales, the culinary comedy has been one of the few specialty titles to find a substantial audience in recent months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After years of development and production, James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d sequel has reached judgment day. Disney and 20th Century Studios\u2019 \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d took flight at the box<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1780006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7811,10252,5458,7660,10253,3819,5994],"class_list":["post-1780003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-avatar","tag-10252","tag-bongino","tag-day","tag-hauls","tag-report","tag-water"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1780003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1780006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1780003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1780003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1780003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}