‘A Knock on the Door’ ousts ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ after 7 weeks at No. 1 at the box office

‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ held on for seven weeks at the top of the North American box office. A milestone that seemed possible only in pre-pandemic times, in Marvel films. Or, of course, in James Cameron. The box office kingpin leaves the throne with his head held high, No. 3 in the weekend chart, down only 32% and another $10.8 million. Its worldwide total is $2.17 billion, just about to match ‘Titanic’ (which will be re-released in a few days, to the disappointment of the Na’vi, but not Cameron, who still makes money). Fun fact: ‘Avatar’ also lost No. 1 in its seventh week, and that was against none other than ‘Dear John’.

M. Night Shyamalan set to snatch crown from ‘Avatar’ sequel with ‘A knock on the door’ premiere. His new thriller opened with $14.2 million, supposedly the director’s weakest opening in the United States. But few directors can say they’ve released seven No. 1 films. Release polls aren’t particularly enthusiastic, so we’ll have to see how it holds up in the coming weeks. What they can’t take away from him, yes, is the title of “matana’vis”. ‘Knock on the door’ debuts with a global box office of $21.2 million in its first weekend.

The variable price experiment

Another surprise in second position, and a very interesting one. The comedy ’80 for Brady,’ starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field, grossed a staggering $12.5 million in its opening weekend. An experiment was made with this film to try to attract an adult audience, still very reluctant to return to theaters after COVID. The theaters and Paramount, the distributor, agreed on a lower ticket price ($9.79 on average compared to $12.30 on average for “Knock on the Door” tickets).. Because of this, ’80 for Brady’ would gain viewers from Shyamalan’s film. And since both had passable debuts, several analysts are already flagging this floating pricing experiment as a success that should be repeated at future occasions.

The top 5 of the North American box office is completed by ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’, which adds an extra $7.9 million and reaches a total of $151 million in the United Statesand ‘The Chosen: Season 3 Finale,’ a screening of a Christian television series that slipped to fifth place with $7 million.