‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ No. 1 With $21M+, ‘Housemaid’ In Brawl For No. 2 With ‘Primate’ At $11M+ Apiece – Sunday Box Office Update

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU: 2026, knock on wood, continues to be on a good start in its first 11 days at the domestic box office with around $327M, +23% from the same period a year ago. The entire weekend is figured around $100M, which is pretty good for January, +25% from the same period last year. Even though James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash isn’t as strong as the first two films stateside with an anticipated running four weekend total tomorrow of $342.6M, about -34% behind Avatar: Way of Water, the movie is powerful enough to be the roux of the January box office. The threequel pulled in $21.3M in its fourth consecutive weekend at No. 1.

Second once a fight between Zootopia 2, Paramount/18Hz’s Primate and the fourth weekend of Lionsgate’s The Housemaid has resulted in a dust-up between the latter two now with $11M+ a piece. The Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, Paul Feig directed thriller will cross $100M by Friday of the MLK weekend.

Lionsgate’s Greenland 2: Migration is coming in at the lower end of its $8M-$10M projection with $8.5M. Previous Lionsgate Butler openings post Covid include Plane ($10M) and last year’s really good Den of Thieves: Pantera ($15M). That STX and Anton co-production cost $90M, but Lionsgate took U.S. for $10M. Pic’s weekend doesn’t include Canada. Both Primate and Greenland 2 get B- CinemaScores.

Primate gets an alright 50% definite recommend in Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak exits. The R-rated movie is male skewing as expected at 58% with the 18-34 bunch showing up at 59%. Latino and Hispanic moviegoers and Caucasians are tied at 35% apiece followed by 20% Black and 7% Asian American moviegoers. Some PLFs are repping 10% of the Johannes Roberts’ directed genre pic’s business. West is the best with AMC Burbank the movie’s highest grossing venue so far with $34K.

Greenland 2 is a 49% definite recommend, and is also guy leaning at 56%, however, remains more older male than Primate, with dudes over 25 at 48% to the chimp’s 39%. The 35-44 set is the largest demo at 26% with 18-34 showing up at 37%. Caucasians are at 42%, Latino and Hispanic audiences at 28%, Black at 13%, Asian American at 10%. This movie is also over-indexing in the West, where a third of the gross is coming from versus a norm of 23% for other titles in the marketplace. The Harkins in Estrella Falls, AZ is the top grossing venue with close to $21K.

Angel Studios’ political war drama I Was a Stranger, which is looking at $1.2M outside the top 10, is the only new wide entry to get a good CinemaScore, that being an A-. It’s playing to the faith-based crowd in the South, Midwest and Mountain regions, just not at big numbers at 1,400 sites with 51% female and the over 55 set at 39%. Diversity demos are 48% Caucasian, 23% Latino and Hispanic, 13% Black, 6% Asian American and 10% Native American/other. Top grossing venue currently is the AMC Empire with around $6,5K through Saturday.

Meanwhile, Sony’s comedy Anaconda just clicked past $100M on Saturday at the global box office with $51.2M abroad. Add in Sunday’s $54.2M stateside and global stands at $105.4M.

Also hearing that Hamnet is a hit in its UK opening with $4.2M weekend. The Chloe Zhao-directed period drama posted the highest opening Friday for a drama released in January since 1917 in 2020. Domestic stands at a running total of $12.8M heading into the Golden Globes tomorrow where it’s up for six noms including Best Feature Drama. Global stands at $17.1M.

U.S./Canada numbers as of Sunday AM:

6. Marty Supreme (A24) 2,512 (-375) theaters, Fri $2.25M (-52%) Sat $3.2M Sun $2.1M Wk $7.6M (-37%), Total $70.1M/Wk 4
The Timothee Chalamet movie is now the second highest grossing movie for A24 at the domestic box office, passing Civil War‘s $68.7M. Just $7M to go before it becomes the distributor’s highest grossing ever stateside taking over multi-Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once ($77.1M).

7. Anaconda (Sony) 3,075 (-434) theaters, Fri $1.28M (-64%) Sat $2.3M Sun $1.4M Wk $5.1M (-49%), Total $54.2M/Wk 3

8. SpongeBob Movie..(Par) 2,567 (-650) theaters, Fri $790K Sat $1.88M Sun $1.1M Wk $3.8M (-54%) Total $63.6M/Wk 4

9. David (Angel) 2,475 (-425) theaters, Fri $634K Sat $1.4M Sun $1M Wk $3.08M (-59%), Total $75.1M/Wk 4

10. Song Sung Blue (Foc) 2,262 (-443) theaters, Fri $890K (-58%) Sat $1.3M Sun $790K Wk $3M (-49%), Total $31.1M/Wk 3
For a pic that cost $30M before P&A, global is currently at $40.7M which counts Actors Award and a Golden Globe nom today (musical) in the Best Actress category for Kate Hudson.

FRIDAY PM UPDATE: In a weekend where a chimp with rabies is looking to scare more people into theaters, 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire and Ash remains the alpha male with what’s expected to be a $24 million fourth weekend at 3,700 locations after a $5.6M Friday and a running cume of $345.2M.

Overseas is where it’s at, and the hope is that the threequel will ring up a global weekend north of $90M+, leading all titles in release. Here in North American, Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to play in Imax, 3D, 4D, Screen-X and D-box premium auditoriums.

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Second for the frame is currently going to Lionsgate’s The Housemaid, holding strong with a $3.4M fourth Friday and a fourth weekend of $12M at 3,123 screens, down 21%, getting the Sydney Sweeney-Amanda Seyfried movie to $94.6M. For Sweeney, as a leading actress, the pic is already her highest grossing at the domestic box office besting Anyone But You‘s $88.3M stateside take.

Paramount/18Hz’s monkey-gone-mad movie Primate with an equal 76% score among critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, is seeing $4.4M today and $10.5M for the weekend at 2,964 sites.

And there are those looking to knock the chimp out such as Lionsgate’s Greenland 2: Migration, with $3.8M today and $10M for the weekend; however, they sport not great critic and audience scores at 54% and 64%, respectively. Gerard Butler’s Den of Thieves: Pantera was in slightly better shape a year ago with RT critic and audience ratings of 62% and 79%, respectively. CinemaScore came in at B+.

With K-12s back in school, the expectation is that the youngins will come out Saturday for more Zootopia 2; the Disney pic is eyeing $10M in weekend 7, -48%, after a $2M Friday for a running cume of $378.7M. While more than Moana 2‘s seventh frame of $6.5M a year ago, that sequel was considerably more frontloaded than Zootopia 2, with its running cume at the time at $434.8M. Moana 2 played all the way to the first weekend of April, ending its run at $460.4M. Just gives you an idea of how much juice is left in Zootopia 2.

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FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Paramount/18Hz’s Primate rang up $1.4M from both Thursday night showtimes and previous previews. Meanwhile, Lionsgate/STX’s Greenland 2: Migration did $900K. Triple note on that Gerard Butler movie: Canada isn’t going this weekend. Primate and Greenland 2 were forecast to make $8M-$10M heading into this weekend.

Despite the entry of two older-male-skewing titles, Avatar: Fire and Ash is expected to hold on to No. 1 in its fourth weekend with $20M-$22M. The James Cameron-directed threequel grossed $2.5M yesterday, ending its third week at $55M for a running cume of $321.2M.

The Johannes Roberts-directed, Walter Hamada-produced $21M Primate opens today in 2,964 locations. Internationally, the film opens this week in 26 markets including Mexico. That 90% fresh Rotten Tomatoes critics score has simmered down to 78% fresh, which is still notable for an R-rated horror movie. Oz Perkins’ The Monkey last year had a 77% certified fresh RT score in reviews. Speaking of which, Primate‘s previews are about $500K shy of Monkey‘s $1.9M (which turned into a $5.8M Friday/previews and $14M opening).

Butler’s Lionsgate movie from a year ago, Den of Thieves: Pantera, did $1.35M in previews before a $5.7M Friday and a $15M No. 1 debut. The first Greenland was 77% certified fresh with audiences during the pandemic (remember, it only got a PVOD play), and Part 2 is lower at 59%. Greenland 2 was made for $90M, but Lionsgate only took U.S. for $10M. Elevation will be releasing the sequel in Canada as PVOD via Amazon.

Per Comscore, 76% of colleges are on break today, a number that declines to 42% on Monday but spikes back up to 94% the following Monday on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in addition to K-12 being 94% on break.

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