Weekend Box Office: Don’t Worry Darling Takes $19.2M Debut, Avatar Re-Release Finishes Third with $10M

Don’t Worry Darling

Warner Bros. historical psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling debuted in first place with $19.2M. That’s about in line with pre-release projection, if slightly on the lower end, with some projections closer to $22M.

Compared to some other adult-skewing September releases from recent years, its opening is about comparable to:

• 2013’s Prisoners ($20.8M)
• 2012’s Looper ($20.8M)
• 2011’s Moneyball ($19.5M)
• Last weekend’s The Woman King ($19.0M)
• 2019’s Ad Astra ($19.0M)

Darling was also playing in 4,113 theaters, an unusually large reach for a film like this, making for a $4,668 per-theater average. All of the top 10 locations were AMC sites, with AMC Century City Los Angeles ranking #1.

The top 10 markets were:

1. Los Angeles
2. New York
3. Dallas
4. San Francisco
5. Chicago
6. Boston
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Philadelphia
9. Phoenix
10. Toronto

Word of mouth has been mixed, with a 38% Rotten Tomatoes critics average and an 81% audience average, one of the widest such discrepancies in recent memory. The audience CinemaScore was a “B-.”

Overseas, the film started with $10.8M in 62 markets, for a $30.0M global opening. The top overseas markets total is the U.K. ($3.1M).

The Woman King

Sony Pictures’ historical action drama The Woman King, starring Viola Davis, debuted last weekend with $19.0M in first place, on the higher end of pre-release projections.

This weekend it falls -41% to $11.1M and second place.

Compared to other comparable female-led action films starring Academy Award winners, that drop was milder than:

• 2017’s Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron (-55%)
• 2018’s Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence (-50%)
• 2018’s Annihilation with Natalie Portman (-49%)
• 2017’s Kidnap with Halle Berry (-49%)

However, it was steeper than several other comparable action or historical drama titles of recent years:

• Hidden Figures (-9%)
• Selma, the Martin Luther King biopic (-22%)
• 12 Years a Slave (-31%)
• 2018’s Widows, which also starred Viola Davis (-33%, although its sophomore frame fell on Thanksgiving weekend)
• Django Unchained (-34%)
• 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic (-36%)
• 2019’s Harriet, the Harriet Tubman biopic (-37%)
• July’s Where the Crawdads Sing (-40%)

Overseas, Woman’s box office has barely started with only $1.3M so far, with most major markets yet to open.

[Read Boxoffice PRO’s interview with The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood here.]

Avatar re-release

20th Century Studios’ IMAX 3D re-release of James Cameron’s original 2009 Avatar earned $10.0M in third place. That was slightly on the higher end of pre-release projections, which were closer to the $8M-$9M range.

For comparison, its opening was:

• 2.5x above 2010’s Avatar re-release, about eight months after its original release ($4.0M)
• +85% above September’s re-release of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($5.4M)
• 9.3x above August’s re-release of 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($1.0M)
• 3.8x above September’s re-release of 1975’s Jaws ($2.6M)

However, it was also lower than some other blockbuster re-releases:

• -42% below 2012’s re-release of James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic ($17.2M)
• -55% below 2012’s re-release of 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace ($22.4M)
• -46% below 2013’s re-release of 1993’s Jurassic Park ($18.6M)
• -20% below 2009’s re-release of 1995’s Toy Story ($12.4M)
• -66% below 2011’s re-release of 1994’s The Lion King ($30.1M)
• -43% below 2012’s re-release of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast ($17.7M)

The Avatar re-release contains a mid-credits sequence containing a sneak peak of December’s sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.

The re-release opening also took 93% of its earnings from 3D, a notably higher percentage than for the original Avatar’s opening (74%).

Domestically, the estimated audience was 56% male and 57% ages 25+.

Overseas, the re-release opened with $20.5M in 50 markets, for a $30.5M global opening. Top market totals include France ($2.9M), Italy ($1.5M), Germany, the U.K., South Korea, and Mexico (all with $1.3M).

75% of the film’s overseas opening came from premium formats, including 3D, IMAX, and/or immersive seating, a somewhat lower percentage than domestically.

Interviews

Boxoffice PRO has interviewed several filmmakers behind current releases:

• The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood, here.
• The Retaliators producers Michael Lombardi (who also stars) and Allen Kovac, here.
• Bullet Train director David Leitch, here.
• Beast director Baltasar Kormákur, here.
• The Invitation director Jessica M. Thompson, here.
• Where the Crawdads Sing director Olivia Newman, here.

Weekend comparisons

Total box office this weekend came in around $59.1M, which is:

• +15% above last weekend’s total ($51.0M), when The Woman King led with $19.0M.
• +23% above the equivalent weekend in 2021 ($47.9M), when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings led for a second consecutive frame with $21.6M.
• -52% below the equivalent weekend in the last pre-pandemic year 2019 ($123.4M), when Downton Abbey led for a second consecutive frame with $31.0M.

YTD comparisons

Year-to-date box office stands around $5.54B. That’s:

• 2.32x this same point in the pandemic recovery year of 2021 ($2.38B), down from 2.35x after last weekend.
• -33.2% behind this same point in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year ($8.30B), down from -32.9% last weekend. The peak was around -29.5%, set in mid-July.

Top distributors

1. Universal ($1.26B)
2. Paramount ($1.17B)
3. Disney ($880.8M)
4. Sony Pictures ($744.0M)
5. Warner Bros. ($736.3M)

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates: