Box Office: 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Continues to Roll to the Top in Weekend Five

"Avatar: The Way of the Water" continues to attract audiences at the domestic box office, retaining a substantial lead against the competition as it seeks to retain the No. 1 spot for a fifth weekend.

Disney and 20th Century Studios sci-fi smash added $7 million from 4,035 slots on Friday, bolstering its total national tally to an impressive 538.8 million. The film is looking to add an estimated $36 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. For the three-day period ending Sunday, "Avatar 2" predicts a decline of approximately 36% from last weekend.

Surely "The Way of Water" doesn't offer the kind of superlative endurance that its predecessor did: James Cameron's 2009 holiday outing rode the word-of-mouth wave with a series of week-over-week declines in January that never topped 27%. However, “The Way of Water” currently exceeds its previous entry, with a total of $538 million which tops the roughly $500 million that the first “Avatar” racked up over MLK weekend in 2010.

"The Way of Water" is currently the 14th highest-grossing film of all time domestically at the box office, with 2019's "The Lion King" ($543 million) and 2018's "The Incredibles 2" ($608 million) as the next releases to hit the record books. The sci-fi sequel is the seventh-highest-grossing film worldwide, with a worldwide total of $1.7 billion and growing. With continued box office dominance and no high-profile competition on the immediate horizon, “The Way of Water” has a shot at becoming the first film to hit $2 billion worldwide since the coronavirus pandemic began. COVID.

"Avatar" isn't the only film showing signs of strength at the domestic box office. Universal's horror-comedy "M3GAN" appears to come in second place, projecting $20 million over the four-day holiday. It's a very solid take on the Blumhouse and Atomic Monster production, which debuted to $30 million last weekend. The buzz remains strong around the film, as audiences continue to line up to meet this dancing, deadly doll.

Beyond these remnants, the box office saw a bunch of new releases scrambling for the eyeballs. The strongest is Sony and Columbia Pictures' "A Man Called Otto," which expands this weekend, adding more than 3,000 theaters after starting with a limited holiday release. The Tom Hanks comedy-drama is looking to land third, projecting a haul of $14.9 million over the four-day span to bring its domestic total to $21 million. That's a very solid number for an original adult-oriented drama in the COVID era. Critics leaned positively on the film, but audiences were much more receptive.

Projecting a fifth-place finish, Lionsgate's thriller "Plane" won an opening day of 3 .5 million from 3,023 locations. The film, carried by reliable action star Gerard Butler, projects a $10 million finish on the four-day vacation.

"House Party" by Warner Bros. will likely open outside the top five. Originally produced for its streaming debut on HBO Max, the studio has grown to a modest, wide release on 1,350 sites. The comedy remake is projecting a sub-$5 million four-day opening, which isn't exactly a dent in the box office.

Universal's "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" appears to be taking fourth place on the national charts , projecting $16 million for the four-day holiday period. For the three-day frame, that's a minimum drop of 8% from last weekend. The DreamWorks spin-off "Shrek," which is already available to buy on digital platforms, has become the rare family film to become a solid box office success of the pandemic era. Now in its fourth weekend, the film will surpass the $100 million domestic mark on Saturday; the worldwide total currently stands at $206 million.