‘Avatar’ sequel holds onto 1st place at box office with $56 million

“Avatar: The Way of Water” continued its box office dominance for a second consecutive weekend, taking in $56 million in North America as dangerous winter storms across large parts of the country kept business slow at movie theaters, according to industry estimates released Sunday.

Director James Cameron’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2009 special effects blockbuster was far ahead of “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” a “Shrek” spinoff that opened with $11.3 million Friday through Sunday for second place, Comscore reported.

The Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” opened in third place with $5.3 million.

Director Damien Chazelle’s 3-hour “Babylon,” starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, opened to just $3.5 million, an extremely disappointing figure for a film with a reported budget of $80 million.

Fifth place at the box office went to the Christmas comedy “Violent Night,” which grossed $3.1 million in its fourth week in theaters.

Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases, as estimated by Comscore, were “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — $3 million; “The Whale” — $924,329; “The Menu” — $617,000; “The Fabelmans” — $550,000; and “Strange World” — $410,000.

This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $85.9 million. The year-to-date total is up to $7.234 billion — an increase of 68% over the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.

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