Movie Monday: ‘Way of Water’ Washed Away by ‘Knock at the Cabin’

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Not Avatar: The Way of Water at No. 1, that’s who.

No joke. After seven consecutive victories, The Way of Water finally fell like Niagara, making way for director M. Night Shyamalan’s possibly-apocalyptic horror flick Knock at the Cabin.

The R-rated Knock pounded on the box-office door and was rewarded with an estimated $14.2 million. That makes it the first movie to be released this year to hit No. 1. (The Avatar sequel landed in theaters at the tail end of 2022.) According to Deadline Hollywood, this marks the seventh Shyamalan film to debut at No. 1. Add in the $7 million it added from overseas markets, and Knock has banked $21.2 million.

Oddly, the weekend’s second-place movie, the octogenarian friendship flick 80 for Brady, actually sold more tickets than Knock (again according to Deadline Hollywood). Perhaps betting that older-skewing  audiences would want to hit theaters earlier in the day, distributor Paramount pushed discounted matinee tickets for the flick. As a result, Brady sold 1.3 million tickets, about 200,000 more than Knock—and enough to account for a $12.5 million gross.

And who knows? If quarterback Tom Brady un-retires again and the movie’s legendary quartet of stars stay healthy, maybe we’ll see a sequel. 90 for Brady, anyone?

Avatar: The Way of Water slipped down to third place with $10.8 million. But cry not for the Na’vi: The second Avatar movie has now made $636.4 million in North America alone, and nearly $2.2 billion overall. Combine that with the $2.9 billion that the original Avatar made, and James Cameron would have just about enough to buy his own NFL franchise. (I hope that his team’s nickname would be the “Sensitive Whales.”)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continued to keep its claws in the Top Five, scratching up nearly another $8 million. The film has now collected $151.3 million in North America, making it truly the cat’s meow. Puss did way better than fellow animated feline The Amazing Maurice. The box-office newcomer managed to lap up just $1.5 million to finish well outside the top five.

A concert film, BTS: Yet to Come in Cinemas, locked down the top five with $6.3 million. That’s a dynamite performance indeed.