‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ opens with strong £11.2m at UK-Ireland box office

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.22

Disney’s Avatar: The Way Of Water has claimed its spot atop the UK-Ireland box office this weekend with ease, banking £11.2m in its debut.

This figure is above the original film, which took £6.7m (plus £1.8m in previews) in its opening weekend from 503 cinemas, back in 2009. The first film, also directed by James Cameron, ended up on £94m.

In The Way Of Water we return to find Jake Sully, living with his newfound Na’vi family on Pandora, and grappling with the return of a familiar threat. From 725 sites, its location average is £15,405.

Its fellow Disney sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened to £12.4m in October, for a £17,663 location average from its 700 sites, which ranked it the fifth highest weekend opening total for a post-pandemic title. The Way Of Water is in joint seventh-place, alongside Top Gun: Maverick, and behind the £12.1m of Jurassic World: Dominion. No Time To Die remains the top post-pandemic debut, opening to £21m last year. 

Distributors have held back on new releases amid the much-anticipated Avatar sequel hitting cinemas, leaving the rest of the box office chart dominated by holdovers. Dazzler Media’s Russian animation Nutcracker And The Magic Flute is the only other title to debut this weekend. Directed by Viktor Glukhushin, the animation follows a young woman who makes a wish and becomes the same size as her toy nutcracker, who is really a prince under a spell.

It is produced by Moscow and St Petersburg-based CTB Film Company, a privately-owned independent firm founded in 1992 by Sergey Selyanov, who is also head of the Russian Association of Motion Pictures and TV Producers.

From 119 sites, the title took £16,691, for a location average of £140. 

Holdovers

Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical has grossed £1.3m in its fourth weekend, boosting its total to £12.7m. 

Now on its sixth session, Wakanda Forever has taken £377,598, down 53% on its previous weekend, bringing its overall figure up to £31.6m.

Universal’s Christmas action comedy Violent Night boasts £352,203 in its third outing, a 38% drop on the weekend before, with a total now of £2.7m.

Disney animation Strange World has taken £193,659 in its fourth weekend, for a total of £2m.

Park Circus’ re-release of The Muppet Christmas Carol has brought in £93,615 in its third weekend, bringing the total up to £315,840.

Disney’s The Menu landed £84,270, down 56% on its previous weekend, for a total of £3.3m after five weekends in cinemas.

In its fifth weekend, Aftersun has taken in £37,177 for Mubi. Charlotte Wells’ debut hasn’t quite crossed the £1m mark, with a total now of £944,958. Mubi has, however, crossed the £1m threshold this weekend with Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave, which took £3,370 in its ninth weekend, pushing it over the line.

The Banshees Of Inisherin made £27,091 in its ninth weekend, to a total of £8.9m for Disney.

Triangle Of Sadness added £27,283 to its total in its eighth session, for an overall figure of £1.5m for Lionsgate. 

She Said’s fourth weekend brought in £23,097 for Universal, a 71% drop from the previous weekend for the Harvey Weinstein investigation drama, for a total of £1.3m.

Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All took £13,503 for Warner Bros in its fourth weekend, for a cumulative figure of £753,243.

Lionsgate’s Living brought in £12,954 in its seventh session. Its total is now £3.6m. 

Black Adam’s ninth weekend took £9,902 for Warner Bros, for an overall figure of £19.9m.

Cannes title The Silent Twins second weekend brought in £1,847, a 93% drop on its opening weekend for Universal. Its overall figure is £60,308.

• ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ storms global box office with $435m opening