'Don't Worry Darling' gives lift to box office with $19M outing
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images Entertainment


Off-screen drama didn't keep the weekend box office from rebounding somewhat from a recent slump, pulling off the best weekend in more than a month with some stronger-than-expected rollouts to bridge the gap to October releases.
Behind-the-scenes tabloid fodder notwithstanding, 1950's psychological drama Don't Worry Darling (NASDAQ:WBD) opened to $19.2M, the best debut total in five weekends and to the high side of its projections, despite some lackluster reviews from critics and audiences.
Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE:DIS) has to be encouraged ahead of December's sequel Avatar: The Way of Water - after the original 2009 Avatar spent this weekend in re-release, and hit double-digits. The 13-year-old film (still the all-time worldwide box-office champ) drew $10M from just 1,860 theaters (most of which were IMAX (IMAX) venues).

Don't Worry Darling (WBD) added another $10.8M overseas to hit a total of $30M worldwide. The Avatar re-release added another $20.5M internationally over the weekend, meaning it too surpassed $30M globally. (Avatar is No. 4 on the all-time domestic chart with $770.5M, and the all-time global leader at $2.878B.)
For the weekend, Avatar fell in just behind the sophomore outing from The Woman King (NYSE:SONY), which grossed $11.1M to bring its domestic cumulative total to $36.3M. No. 4 on the list was Airbnb-themed horror film Barbarian (DIS), with $4.8M in its third week.
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC); Cineworld; Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).
AMC stock (AMC) spent its Monday sliding by double digits, though that wasn't related to the strong box office but rather to machinations with its preferred equity units.