Hot diggity!
You know, if we recall vividly, The Way of Water opened to $134 million on this same weekend three years ago in a barren marketspace, when the remaining 13% of the total domestic output for that weekend was a bunch of others that opened around or reasonably below $1 million. And in a year where much of the competition has been in dire need of assistance or waiting for a ramp from the holidays, this weekend caters significantly to the latter. Well, in that sense, you had three other films from major studios (and the continued legs of Pixar’s sequel) to join the fight before Christmas jumps in. Is this a sentiment to start having panic induced into Disney screwing over another high-quality IP? No, and we’ll go over it below.
Avatar: Fire and Ash opened with $88 million, a far cry from its predecessor but still higher than the original 2009 chapter, which opened with $77 million. That barely got its weekend multiplier over The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ($84.6 million in its debut back in 2012), but it’s still slightly under its predecessors. It wasn’t the whole “see it first before it’s spoiled for me!” gimmick, unlike the holiday biggies such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and, taking a break from Star Wars, Spider-Man: No Way Home. But then again, history repeats itself. Folks and pundits online were gravely concerned when The Way of Water opened with “only” $134 million domestic and $441 million worldwide, only to see legs carry it to an easy $2.2 billion globally. Even the Aquaman titles got their fair share of glory (think The Lost Kingdom legging over 4x past its domestic debut), so whether you’re under the sea or fighting in Pandora, folks will take their precious time to show up when it’s most convenient. Reviews were not as strong this time around, but an A from CinemaScore speaks for itself, and some folks might subconsciously want to sneak in to see the distorted previews for Avengers: Doomsday (cough cough). With a $350 million worldwide debut, this is sure to leg out over the holiday season, leading into 2026; even if it only snagged $1.75 billion once all is said and done, that’s still a homerun for Disney to continue the world of Pandora for another few years.
In other news, newcomer David by Angel Studios wowed with a $22 million opening weekend. That makes it the second-biggest opening weekend behind Sound of Freedom. Yes, folks wanted to turn up to see young David become the King of Israel, and it will surely leg out to pass The King of King‘s domestic total of $60.2 million. Newcomer The Housemaid opened with $19 million, plus good reviews and a B from CinemaScore. And The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants opened with $16 million, which is well below the 2004 outing that opened with $35 million. It will be interesting to see if all of these other newcomers can flirt with $100 million domestically, while Fire and Ash shoots for the skies.
Zootopia 2 earned $14.5 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic cume to $282.8 million and $1.272 billion worldwide. It might have taken a ding domestically from David, but it’s still in the fight and will probably end up closer to $1.5 billion worldwide at this rate. China has been its saving grace and then some.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 earned $7.25 million domestically in its third weekend and passed $201 million globally. It’s a bit lower than its predecessor’s third weekend ($8.99 million), but its predecessor didn’t face four other newcomers that weekend, so this is an acceptable result. It will still flirt with its predecessor’s $137 million domestic total and probably end up around $250 million worldwide.
Wicked: For Good has passed $320 million domestically and will probably pass $500 million worldwide before the year is up. Dhurandhar earned $2.5 million in its third weekend while adding another 23 theaters. A24’s Marty Supreme opened with $875k from just six theaters (before expanding on Wednesday). Hamnet earned $850k in its fourth weekend, and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t will wrap up its global cume around $220-225 million.
The last films of 2025 to be released this coming week are Father Mother Sister Brother, The Plague, Anaconda, Song Sung Blue, and The Testament of Ann Lee.
