This Wednesday, evening of the France-Morocco match, the film did not break a record. But he still did well! (Source: French Film)
By publishing the scores of the first day France of Wednesday, The French Movie sets aside two films: The Super 8 Years and Avatar: The Waterway, because their distributors, New Story and Disney, did not want to communicate their starts. We know that at first Paris sessionsJames Cameron’s blockbuster recorded the third best start of the year, behind those of Minions 2 and of Doctor Strange 2, but we will have to wait until Monday to find out how he fared throughout France. So it’s the animated movie Ernest and Celestine: Journey to Charabie which is at the top of Wednesday’s ranking, with 11,173 seats occupied in 607 rooms across France. Thanks to its previews, this score climbed to 70,000. In 2012, the first film had sold 52,955 tickets at the start, then had crossed the million entries.
First day France of Wednesday, December 14, 2022:
If Disney does not communicate on Avatar 2 for the moment, it is undoubtedly linked to the exceptional length of the film (3h14, i.e. half an hour longer than the cinema version of the first Avatar, which limits its number of screenings per cinema), as well as the rather special period during which it comes out: in the middle of the Football World Cup, and when France is on track to win the final. This Wednesday, the France-Morocco match was particularly followed, seen by more than 20 million viewers, which necessarily impacts the entries recorded at the cinema at the same time. This Sunday, the final scheduled for 4 p.m. between France and Argentina will also certainly be very popular. In this context, it is difficult to break records, even for The Way of the Water, which follows one of the biggest box office successes in France: in 2009, the first part attracted more than 14 million spectators in the country. The blockbuster is still in the top 10 of all time with us, 13 years later: it is ninth, between two Disney cartoons, The jungle Book (1968) and 101 Dalmatians (1961). Only one film has managed to surpass it since 2009: Untouchables (2011), which is 3rd in the top of all time, with 19.4 million admissions.
Still, estimates have filtered all the same. Already, Aurélien Bosc, the boss of Pathé, has indicated thatAvatar 2 had about 300,000 presales in their group alone, a record. All day Wednesday, cinezap estimates that there were 230,000 tickets sold for the film, without specifying its number of rooms, nor its scores in preview, which will therefore have to be added to have a more precise idea of its true result. The French Movie estimates that at least 240,000 entries were recorded on this first day in France. Which is a good score, without being exceptional: if this is true, then The Way of the Water will be in the top 10 best startups of 2022, around that of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which attracted 243,470 onlookers in 625 theaters on the Wednesday of its release. It is currently 9th in the top thanks to this, quite far behind the 603,500 admissions of Minions 2 on July 6 (for 794 prints, and in the middle of the Fête du Cinéma, it took full advantage of its reduced prices). Five other blockbusters debuted beyond 300,000 tickets this year, and only sequels to hit Hollywood productions: Thor 4, Jurassic World 3, Doctor Strange 2, Top Gun: Maverick and Fantastic Beasts 3.
We will know more on Monday when the weekend box office is revealed. In the meantime, here is the trailer forAvatar: The Way of the Waterwho is critically acclaimed :
Avatar 2 vs. the World Cup: at the box office, James Cameron resists