Avatar: The Way of Water debuts at top of weekend box office Published By Alexandra Heilbron on Dec 18, 2022

Avatar: The Way of Water starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana debuted far ahead of the pack at the weekend box office. Movie lovers had waited a long time for this one, and it showed. The film took in a whopping $134 million.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped one spot to second, earning an additional $5.4 million for a total of $419 million.

Violent Night starring David Harbour as Santa dropped a spot to third place, taking in an extra $5 million for a three-week total of $34.9 million.

The animated film Strange World dropped one spot to fourth with a take of $2.2 million in its fourth weekend, for a total of $33.8 million.

Rounding out the top five was The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes, which earned another $1.7 million for a five-week total of $32.1 million. ~Alexandra Heilbron