‘Puss In Boots’ Finds New Legs Over New Year’s Weekend As ‘Avatar’ Continues To Dominate

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water pulled in another $186.7 million from 52 international markets over the holiday weekend for a $1.38 billion global gross so far. Its total international box office now stands at an estimated $956.9 million and will cross a billion early this week.

The Way of Water is Disney’s first post-pandemic billion-dollar film and only the second film from any distributor to break a billion dollars at the offshore box office since the pandemic hit, joining Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.1 billion international). The Avatar sequel also recently passed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the 15th highest-grossing film of all time.

In its second week in theaters, Joel Crawford’s Puss in Boots managed to scratch up another $16.3 million at the domestic box office for distributor Universal, bringing its North American total to $61.2 million. That was a 35% improvement over the film’s slow domestic opening weekend which was hampered by brutal weather.

Over the New Year’s weekend, The Last Wish also opened in 18 new markets, bringing its total to 71. The film saw a corresponding 15% jump at the box office over the previous week to hit $22.5 million abroad over the New Year’s holiday. The film’s offshore total now sits at $68.8 million and its global tally at $129.6 million.

With four strong legs under it, Puss in Boots now looks headed in the right direction to surpass Dreamwork’s other most recent animated feature to hit theaters, The Bad Guys, which grossed $97 million over its domestic run and $250 million worldwide.

Despite its availability on Disney+, Strange World made $513,000 over the weekend, stretching its domestic haul to $37 million and inching closer to the top 40 domestic box office list of 2022. To reach that milestone, the film would have to make another million dollars and pass Dragon Ball Hero: Super Hero’s North American total of $38.1 million. Strange World was dropped from another 150 theaters over the weekend, however, so it could still take a couple of weeks to catch up to Crunchyroll’s anime blockbuster if it manages the feat at all.