LOS ANGELES: Disney and Marvel’s "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" has again led the North American box office, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday, but the film's estimated weekend take of just USD 11.1 million reflected a deep slump in moviegoing.
Hollywood has suffered from a dearth of big new films and the growing popularity of home streaming services. This weekend's top 12 films grossed under USD 35 million, one of the year's worst totals, analysts said.
In its five weeks out, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" has now taken in a domestic total of USD 409.8 million. But that is far from the USD 700.4 million grossed by the original 2018 film, and "Wakanda" is expected to be knocked off its reigning perch next weekend.
The release December 16 of 20th Century's much anticipated "Avatar: The Way of Water" "can't come soon enough," said BoxOfficeMojo.com. "Until then, the box office is slowing to a crawl."
In second place this weekend was Universal's action comedy "Violent Night," at USD 8.7 million for the Friday-through-Saturday period. David Harbour stars as a sledgehammer-wielding Santa who takes on some bad guys trying to ruin one family's Christmas.
Disney's computer-animated sci-fi film "Strange World" again placed third, with ticket sales of USD 3.6 million. Searchlight's horror-comedy "The Menu," starring Ralph Fiennes, held fourth place, taking in USD 2.7 million.
And fifth was Sony's "Devotion," about the friendship of two US fighter pilots during the Korean War, at USD 2 million.
One weekend bright spot, said Variety.com, was A24's "The Whale," which in limited release took in USD 360,000 from just six theatres, the best per-screen average this year. Brendan Fraser, in a prosthetic suit, stars as a 600-pound (270-kilogram) man who tries to reconnect with his daughter.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
"Black Adam" (USD 1.3 million)
"The Fabelmans" (USD 1.2 million)
"Met Opera: The Hours" (USD 791,000)
"I Heard the Bells" (USD 751,000)
"Spoiler Alert" (USD 700,000)