Christmas Day brought good news to several films at the box office, starting with 20th Century/Lightstorm’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” which added $24 million to its domestic total on Thursday and passed the $500 million mark worldwide.
Through its first week in theaters, “Avatar 3” has earned $153 million domestically and is now expected by theatrical sources to earn a second weekend of at least $70 million, which would equate to a drop of 20% or less from the film’s $88 million opening weekend.
Meanwhile, A24’s “Marty Supreme” and Sony’s “Anaconda” got off to good starts on their respective opening days. “Marty Supreme” earned $9.5 million from its first full day in wide release in 2,668 locations and is now expected to surpass pre-release projections of a $20 million 4-day opening.
While the Josh Safdie thriller faces an uphill road to theatrical profit with a $70 million production budget before an extensive marketing campaign — albeit one still lower than most studios despite aggressive promotion on NBA Christmas Day games — “Marty Supreme” has enjoyed some of the strongest reviews of the year with a 94% critics and 82% audience RT score.
And on CinemaScore, opening day audiences gave the film a B+, a full letter grade higher than the C+ for Safdie’s 2019 film “Uncut Gems” starring Adam Sandler and on the higher end for A24 as only two wide releases from the distributor — “Warfare” and “The Iron Claw” — have ever earned an A- from the audience poll.
Overall, grosses on Christmas Day reached $68 million, a new post-pandemic high for the holiday that tops the $62.3 million seen in 2023.
More to come…