Christmas Box Office Upset: ‘Marty Supreme’ Beats ‘Anaconda,’ ‘Avatar 3’ Crossing $700M Globally
Timothée Chalamet has stopped at nothing to market A24's acclaimed awards hopeful 'Marty Supreme' — including becoming the first person to stand atop The Sphere in Las Vegas — and it's paying off.
While James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to dominate the year-end holiday box office, there’s plenty of other action to follow courtside as another batch of movies opened nationwide on Christmas Day, including A24’s high-profile period pic Marty Supreme — starring Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis champion — and Sony’s Jack Black-Paul Rudd comedy monster pic Anaconda.
Avatar 3, now in its second weekend, will easily win the holiday tournament with anywhere from $85 million to $80 million from 3,800 North American theaters. On Friday, it earned another $22 million domestically as it flew past the $600 million mark globally, including a North American tally of $176.3 million. And its Christmas Day haul of $24 million was among the 10 best showings of all time domestically, as it finished the day with a domestic tally of $153.6 million and $390.6 million internationally. Disney is staying mum, but James Cameron’s threequel should finish Sunday with a global cume well north of $700 million, if not closer to $800 million, including a domestic haul in the $220 million range.
Elsewhere, the battle for second place quickly turned into a spirited contest between Marty Supreme and Anaconda.
In a surprise upset, Chalamet’s film is now tipped to come in second over the long holiday weekend with a four-day opening in the $27 million range from 2,688 cinemas after opening to a stellar $9.5 million on Christmas Day, including $2 million in Wednesday previews, followed by $6.7 million on Friday. That’s ahead of all expectations and a testament both to A24’s savvy business tactics and Chalamet’s relentless marketing efforts (not to mention the film itself and director Josh Safdie).
Marty Supreme made headlines last weekend with a record-breaking per-location average of $145,913 across six locations in New York City and L.A., the best in A24’s history and the best of any film since 2016’s La La Land. Sporting a pricey budget of $60 million to $70 million, it is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made by the indie studio. (Period pics are expensive!)
In his review for , chief critic David Rooney says reinvents the sports comedy. “Marking the first time since his 2008 solo debut that has directed a feature without his brother and longtime collaborator Benny, turns out, paradoxically, to be his most Safdian movie to date. Propelled by a hot-wired Timothée Chalamet as a cocky operator aiming for global table tennis glory, this genre-defying original is an exhilarating sports comedy, a scrappy character study, a thrumming evocation of early ‘50s New York City — plus a reimagining of all those things. Think of it as meets and maybe you’re halfway there.”