James Cameron Takes Both Second And Third Place At The Box Office
James Cameron's movies Avatar: The Way of Water and a rereleased Titanic are #2 and #3 at the box office.
James Cameron continues to dominate the box office, even eight weeks after Avatar: The Way of Water was released. In fact, Cameron is taking second and third place at the box office for Superbowl weekend as Avatar comes in as the second highest-grossing film, and Titanic—that’s right, the film released in 1997—comes in as the third highest-grossing film at the box office this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo.
According to Box Office Mojo, which tracks, reports, and analyzes box office earnings both domestically and internationally, Avatar: The Way of Water grossed $6,884,000 between February 10 and 12th. The number is significantly less than the film made its opening weekend ($134 million), but it is an impressive number considering that the sequel to the first James Cameron Avatar film has been available to see in theaters for about two months already.
What’s even more impressive is that the film that made James Cameron a household name more than 25 years ago was re-released in 2,464 theaters across the US this weekend and has brought in such a large audience that Titanic has grossed $6,400,000 in the past two days alone. It currently stands as the third highest-grossing film on Super Bowl weekend, as well as the third highest-grossing film of all time.
James Cameron’s Titanic made $28,638,131 during its opening weekend in 1997. Since then, the film has earned an estimated $2.2 billion globally. The top-grossing film of all time is another Cameron feature, Avatar, the predecessor to Avatar: The Way of Water, released in 2009, which has so far grossed a total of $2.92 billion. The Way of Water comes in as the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, with total earnings coming in just behind Titanic at $2.216 billion. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame is the only film standing in between James Cameron claiming all three top spots for the highest-grossing films of all time, beating Titanic by about $583 million.
While two of James Cameron’s most successful films of all time take the second and third spots for top films this weekend, first place might seem a little surprising. Magic Mike’s Last Dance, starring Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek, claims the gold medal for the highest-performing film at the box office this weekend, having earned a total of $8,200,000. The film is the third and final movie in the trilogy about the exotic male dancer Magic Mike (Tatum), and while it hasn’t earned the same as its two prequels (Magic Mike grossed $39.1 million opening weekend, and Magic Mike XXL grossed $12.8 million), it has managed to outperform some of the world’s highest grossing films of all time.
Traditionally, Super Bowl Sunday is not a very busy day for movie theaters in North America. While many would-be moviegoers stay at home to watch the game, production companies time the second weekend of February for more female-targeted audiences. Likely, it’s because of this strategy that films like Magic Mike’s Last Dance and James Cameron’s Titanic are the best-performing films this weekend.
