'Avatar: The Way Of Water' Climes To No. 7 On All-Time Box Office Chart, 'M3GAN' Is A Breakout Hit!

To the surprise of likely very few at this point, it was yet another dominant weekend at the box office for the James Cameron sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water," which continues to climb in the box office rankings. The film has now reached $1.7 billion at the global box office, making it the seventh-biggest movie of all time, as reported by Deadline.

Elsewhere, the new Blumhouse horror film, "M3GAN" had a very strong opening weekend, performing well above expectations by bringing in $30.2 million at the domestic box office over the weekend.

Typically, but not always, January tends to be a dumping ground month for Hollywood where it puts other movies it doesn't know what to do with or movies it doesn't expect to do well. With that in mind, it's no surprise that "The Way of Water" was No. 1 yet again this weekend, bringing in an estimated $45 million. This brings the sci-fi sequel's domestic total to about $516 million. It's also sitting at $1.7 billion globally, and it's continuing to climb.

With its weekend take, "The Way of Water" surpasses 2015's "Jurassic World" as the No. 7 movie of all time at the global box office. The next milestone to reach would be the 2021 film, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," at $1.916 billion. At this rate, "Avatar: The Way of Water" will likely have no problem reaching that mark. The question is if it can surpass Cameron's own "Titanic," which is currently sitting at No. 3 in the rankings with $2.201 billion.

The original "Avatar" currently sits at No. 1 with a total of $785 million domestic and $2.922 billion. However, that's after multiple re-releases. The targets for "Avatar's" original release would be closer to $749 million domestically and $2.743 billion worldwide. It seems highly unlikely, but it's doubtful that Disney or Cameron will be crying to the bank over the film's final numbers.

The continuing strong box office performance for "The Way of Water" certainly seems to guarantee that there should not be any issue getting the planned sequels out in the near future. The currently untitled "Avatar 3" is slated for a December 20, 2024 release. "Avatar 4" is due out on December 18, 2026. "Avatar 5" is currently dated December 22, 2028.

Elsewhere, the new AI-themed Blumhouse Productions horror-thriller, "M3GAN," had a rather incredible opening weekend. Even in the doldrums of January and against "The Way of Water," the film still grossed an impressive $30.2 million, that's against a $12 million budget, which guarantees that the film will be highly profitable for Universal Pictures.

"Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" also continues to overcome the odds and perform well in subsequent weeks at the box office. The film only dropped 22% in its third weekend, bringing in another $13.1 million domestically. While "The Last Wish" likely won't finish as high as the 2011 original, it gives DreamWorks Animation and Universal another nice bonafide word-of-mouth hit to start the year out with.

"The Last Wish" has now made $87.7 million at the domestic box office and $197.4 million worldwide, and it looks like those numbers will continue to climb throughout January. The animated sequel features the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, John Mulaney, and Florence Pugh. It's playing now in theaters. "M3GAN" starring Allison Williams and "Avatar: The Way of Water" starring Sam Worthington Zoe Saldaña are also playing in theaters.