It was a weekend of debuts topping the box office with Avatar: Fire and Ash by far the top film with nearly four times the second place movie. Avatar: Fire and Ash debuted with an estimated $88 million which is a fraction of the $257 million it has earned internationally for a worldwide opening of $345 million.

The first Avatar opened in 2009 with $77 million and went on to gross $785.2 million domestically and $2.924 billion worldwide. The second film in 2022 opened with $134.1 million to end with $688.5 million domestically and $2.343 billion worldwide.

It’s hard to judge this third film as it’s a bit above the first not adjusted for inflation but far below the second film. SO, the final worldwide gross will be the real way to judge it and will be interesting to see how it might impact the two films that are scheduled to be released.

David opened in second place with $22 million domestically, not too surprising as it’ll play to the holiday season.

The Housemaid came in third place with just under $19 million domestically.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants opened in fourth place with $16 million domestically and $957 internationally. The answer is Colombia if you’re wondering what country.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie opened in 2004 with $32 million domestically and went on to gross $85.4 million domestically and $141.1 million worldwide. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water opened in 2015 with $55.4 million domestically and went on to gross $163 million domestically and $325.2 million worldwide. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run opened with $865,824 domestically in 2020 and grossed $4.8 million. So, overall, this latest film is a bit of a disappointment for the franchise.

Rounding out the top five was Zootopia 2 with $14.5 million to bring its domestic gross to $282.8 million. Over the week, it grossed $112.3 million to bring that to $990 million. The film has grossed $1.273 billion worldwide, passing the first film which grossed $1.044 billion in 2016.

In other comic related movies…

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution grossed $274,020 domestically to bring that total to $15.9 million. Internationally, remained at $34.4 million for a worldwide gross of $50.3 million.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc remained at $43.4 million domestically. Internationally, the movie increased $700,000 to bring that to $110.9 million. Worldwide, the movie has grossed $154.3 million.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle grossed about $25,000 domestically over the week and now its total is just over $134.4 million. Internationally, the movie has grossed $580.9 million. Its worldwide gross is just under $715.3 million.

Numbers have 52 movies grossing $179,334,896 from 31,940 theaters for an average of $5,614.74. That compared to last week’s 70 movies grossing $76,446,778 from 33,058 theaters for an average of $2,312.51.