The Way Of Water surpasses Titanic, and also Ant-Man shows up, at the weekend box office

Only James Cameron can make more money than James Cameron (plus one other movie)

By Sam Barsanti  |  February 19, 2023 | 9:58pm
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The Way Of Water surpasses Titanic, and also Ant-Man shows up, at the weekend box office
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Photo: Marvel Studios

It must be hard being Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. The reviews weren’t great, which is fine, but also apparently Disney and Marvel Studios were super happy about letting a famous anti-vaccine advocate do as much press as she wants, which really sucks. But along with that stuff, the movie can’t even really enjoy opening at number one on the domestic box office charts, because Avatar: The Way Of Water is still the bigger story thanks to the fact that it has now surpassed James Cameron’s own Titanic to claim the number three spot on the all-time international box office charts. It has some work to do to catch Avengers: Endgame, but Cameron is now in spitting distance of locking out the top two spots.

But we’re here to talk about the domestic charts, so now we have to briefly acknowledge Ant-Man: It opened to $104 million, so that’s good. Vaccines are also good. Not dying from COVID is good. Wearing a mask and getting vaccinated to protect other people as much as yourself is good.

As for Avatar: The Way Of Water, it threw $6 million onto its domestic money pile (it has a little more than $650 million in the U.S.). That’s only a 15 percent drop from last week, which is stunning for a movie that has been out for 10 weeks now, so maybe it’ll just never stop making money? It’ll easily break all of those records if that’s what happens. Under those is last week’s winner, Magic Mike’s Last Dance ($5.4 million this week, $17 million total), followed by Puss In Boots: The Last Wish ($5.2 million and $166 million after nine weeks). Finishing out the top five is Knock At The Cabin, which bounced up a position with $3.9 million and $30 million in its third week.

The only other newcomer on the charts is Liam Neeson’s Marlowe, which opened at $1.9 million in eighth place. The limited release of fun-with-the-public-domain horror movie Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey opened in 12th with $679,291.

The full top 10, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, is below.

  • Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania
  • Avatar: The Way Of Water
  • Magic Mike’s Last Dance
  • Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
  • Knock At The Cabin
  • 80 For Brady
  • Titanic (rerelease)
  • Marlowe
  • Missing
  • A Man Called Otto

 
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