Avatar Underperforms, but Creeps to $441M Opening

 With a rather spectacular development budget, it was always going to be a little hit-and-miss as to whether Avatar: The Way of Water would meet the lofty benchmarks needed for both profit and to boost the wider Box Office totals for 2022. To date, well, it’s not looking great. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake, unpacks the totals so far. 

Brandon Blake


Total Global Launch

With its full opening weekend under its belt, Avatar 2 has managed to net a global total of $441.6M, with $307.6M of that coming from international play. While it did have a stronger Sunday than initially predicted internationally, it’s lackluster to say the least. By its own needed benchmarks, that is. It does manage to make it to the 3rd highest global weekend of the pandemic era, as well as the 2nd highest global opening this year, which is nothing to sneeze at.

 

What does this mean in real terms? This does put it (considering like-for-like) a cozy 82% ahead of Top Gun: Maverick and 42% ahead of Jurassic World: Dominion for their opening weekends, as well as 78% ahead of the first film. However, it’s also lagging the biggest performer in recent years for the holiday season- Spider-Man: No Way Home- by a meaty 24%. 

Below Projections

For a film this expensive to make, that’s not entirely a good thing, although there’s still promise. It has failed to meet its predicted benchmarks, however. Mostly due to weak uptake on the Chinese market, making only $57.1M of the expected $100M bow.

 

However, holiday season releases are historically tricky. People take their time to watch new movies, with leave allowing them that freedom. Word of mouth has been fairly solid, which is a good indicator of future performance. And this still takes it to the No 1 slot for opening offshore markets everywhere except Japan, where it made No 2. 

 

Will we soon be discussing brighter results from this key year-end release? We’ll have to wait and see. For now, it could go either way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kung Fu Panda 4 the Key to a Reinvigorated 2024 Box Office?

Image
 With Dune: Part Two having finally powered up the 2024 box office, it's time to build on that impetus if the wider box office recovery is to continue. There could be another strong contender lurking in the wings for this weekend’s releases- but it will doubtless surprise you to learn that this hope lies with the fourth installment of the animated Kung Fu Panda saga! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles , Brandon Blake, has more on this ironic twist for us.                                                                          Brandon Blake Two $40M Grosses on the Cards For the first time since July 2023 and the Barbenheimer dual release, we have a chance at not one, but two, films grossing over $40M this weekend. In fact, those figures may top $50M! While Dune: Part Two has had the benefit of massive hype and anticipation, Kung Fu Panda 4 may well turn out to be the more profitable production. Dune: Part Two has already grossed over $100M globally,
Read more

Netflix Ad Tier Turns in Fantastic Growth

Image
 What a difference half a year can make! With Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier first launched only 18 months ago, the streamer has managed to nearly double its subscriber base since the start of 2024. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, fills in the details. Brandon Blake Impressive Subscriber Gains Netflix’s total subscribers for the ad-supported tier now number 40 million monthly active users. In January 2024, it was 23 million. The streamer was understandably gleeful to reveal this news at its first in-person Upfronts presentation in New York earlier this month. At its first-ever Upfronts presentation, which was held digitally in 2023, the ad tier had 5 million monthly active users.   Additionally, we were told that 40% of active signups now opt for the ad-supported plan, in countries where it is currently available. Of course, much of this can be attributed to a rather kind price ($7 domestically) for this tier, well below most of the other
Read more

Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

Image
While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they are also hoping a more advertiser-appealing platform with better metrics can be leveraged to boost their highly su
Read more