Avatar: Fire and Ash will continue to dominate the domestic box office this weekend, easily eclipsing a slew of new releases.
James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster recently passed the $1 billion mark and is expected to bring in another $20 million in ticket sales. That should exceed the $8 million to $11 million that studio officials expect Lionsgate’s “Greenland 2: Migration” and Paramount’s “Primate” to generate. I give “Greenland 2” a slight edge over “Primate,” but it looks like it’s a close call.
There is a lot of competition in multiplexes. In addition to holiday classics like “Marty Supreme” and “The Housemaid,” Angel Studios will widely release “I Was a Stranger” and premiere Searchlight’s “Is This Sing On?” will debut in a handful of theaters for awards qualifying before expanding to more than 1,000 venues. “I Was a Stranger” is expected to gross between $1 million and $3 million.
Another of Gerard Butler’s action hero films, “Greenland 2” is a sequel to the 2020 disaster thriller “Greenland,” which was released on demand due to the coronavirus. It had a budget of $90 million and was produced by STX. STX is a defunct studio that is reportedly looking to make a comeback. The film co-stars Morena Baccarin and Roman Griffin Davis and was directed by Ric Roman Waugh. The film depicts a family emerging from the bunker they were hiding in during a comet impact and searching for a new home.
“Primate” is the story of a group of friends whose tropical vacation turns into a journey of survival. The first release from “18Hz”, a new genre label run by former DC Films chief Walter Hamada. Primate is a relatively low-risk production, with a production budget of $24 million.
