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'AVATAR: The Way of Water' easily stayed atop the North American box office for a fifth straight week, taking in an estimated US$38.5 million (RM166.8 million) on a long holiday weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.
That brought the domestic total for the Disney/20th Century blockbuster – the story of a blue-skinned race on a distant moon – to an impressive US$570 million, on top of an international total of US$1.33 billion.
'The Way of Water,' a sequel to the 2009 film that was the top grosser ever, could be the first film to hit US$2 billion worldwide since the Covid pandemic struck, Variety reported.
In second place over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend was scary-doll thriller 'M3GAN,' from Universal and Blumhouse, at an estimated US$21.2 million. The humanoid doll in question, designed as a companion to a young orphan girl, takes on a creepy life of her own
Universal's family-oriented 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,' an animated 'Shrek' spinoff, again placed third, taking in US$17.3 million.
Fourth place went to 'A Man Called Otto,' at US$15 million. The Sony film, a feel-good adaptation of Swedish novel 'A Man Called Ove,' stars Tom Hanks as a world-class curmudgeon forced to deal with some caring neighbors.
And in fifth was a new Lionsgate release, action-thriller 'Plane,' at US$11.6 million. Gerard Butler stars as a pilot who has to work with a convicted killer (played by Mike Colter) to protect passengers after the plane crash-lands in a remote Philippine jungle controlled by armed militias. – AFP, January 16, 2022