‘Babylon’ fails at the US box office, while ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ continues to make a clean sweep

‘Babylon’, the new Damien Chazelle, debuted on December 23 surrounded by a lot of hype in the United States, but Despite the attraction of the names behind it and the attractiveness of its premise, it hit hard at the box office in your country. The film did not succeed with the unstoppable ‘Avatar: The sense of water’, which continues to tour the world, nor with the late sequel ‘Puss in Boots: The last wish’, the only who knew how to take a small slice of the pie at James Cameron’s Na’vi.

The new film from the acclaimed director of ‘Whiplash’ and ‘Star City: La La Land’ cost about $80 million and opened with just $5.3 million, matching its first four days on the North American bill (via Deadline). ANDlure of stars such as Margot Robbie or Brad Pitt, who lead the bill, was not enough to attract moviegoers to cinemaswho have turned their backs on Chazelle’s epic over-the-top recreation of 1920s Hollywood.

It must be taken into account that the weather conditions greatly affected the box office in North America, which may have contributed to the poor result of ‘Babylon’. But the truth is, with only 55% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and releasing just one week after “Avatar: The Sense of Water,” the movie had everything to lose. Furthermore, it is believed that ‘Babylon’ will not benefit from word of mouth (despite being nominated for a Golden Globe and playing for the Oscars), since Audience response was also generally negative, with a C+ CinemaScore rating (one of the year’s lowest).which indicates that it will not have a very long journey.

Although it is too early to draw definitive conclusions and has not yet been released in the rest of the world (it hits Spanish theaters on January 20), analysts predict that ‘Babylon’ will struggle to recoup its investment, as it would need to exceed $250 million in revenue to be profitable, a figure that, today and because of this difficult start, seems unattainable. The film thus closes the spectacular year that Paramount Pictures had, which with the phenomenon ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ obtained its best historical premiere in the United States, surpassing ‘Titanic’.

‘Babylon’ it is Margot Robbie’s second box office flop in 2022 after ‘Amsterdam’, becoming the worst commercial premiere of her career. The same for Brad Pitt (with whom, curiously, he shared the bill in ‘Once upon a time in… Hollywood’, another recent film on the background of Hollywood that went much better). The Oscar-winning actor pulls off the worst extended opening in his filmography since 1993, when ‘Love at point blank range’ debuted for less than $4 million. Proof that not even the biggest stars are a guarantee of success for a film.

The Na’vi and the cat in the dung, king of the box office

Other than ‘Babylon’, few brave people dared to compete with ‘Avatar: The Water’s Way’ at the Christmas box office. What he has done best is undoubtedly ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’, the sequel to the spin-off of ‘Shrek’ has been very well received by critics and audiences and it opened in second place at the US box office, with $18.5 million during the Christmas holidays. It’s not a spectacular figure, but it far surpasses the week’s other premiere, ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, the Whitney Houston biopic, which at 4.7 million didn’t have much better luck than ‘Babylon’. Even if, all in all, it costs much less, so the success is less. The sequel to ‘Avatar’ continues undefeated on the throne, which It amassed 287.7 million in the US and 601.7 in the rest of the world, bringing the global total to 889 million in just 10 days (Box Office Mojo). It is believed that it could exceed one billion dollars by the end of the year.