Christmas Box Office Upset: ‘Marty Supreme’ Beats ‘Anaconda,’ ‘Avatar 3’ Crossing $700M Globally

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 THR, chief critic David Rooney says Marty Supreme reinvents the sports comedy. “Marking the first time since his 2008 solo debut that Josh Safdie has directed a feature without his brother and longtime collaborator Benny, Marty Supreme 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 Uncut Gems meets Catch Me If You Can and maybe you’re halfway there.”

Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion and Tyler, the Creator also star in this tale of an aspiring table tennis champion angling to ping pong his way out of 1950s Lower East Side Manhattan.

Chalamet has stopped at nothing to help market the movie — including becoming the first person to stand atop The Sphere in Las Vegas — and it appears to be paying off. In the weeks leading up to the film’s release, he wrote and directed a staged Zoom call with A24’s marketing team in which he presented increasingly ridiculous ideas to promote Marty Supreme. One of the ideas presented actually became reality: fly a bright orange rented blimp with the movie’s title imprinted on each side. While there was talk of a cross-country tour, the blimp is based in the Los Angeles area. The Zoom also resulted in the idea for Safdie and the cast to light the Empire State Building orange ahead of the New York premiere.

The big question facing Marty Supreme is whether it can break out and play to mainstream audiences, versus the more traditional specialty crowd.

Anaconda is arguably the more commercial offering of the two, and had been widely expected to come in second. The pic, which the studio says is not a reboot, has been skewered by critics. Its ranking on Rotten Tomatoes is presently a 51 percent, compared to a 95 percent rating for Marty Supreme. Interestingly, audience reaction isn’t that far apart. Anaconda received a B CinemaScore and currently has a 78 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes; Marty Supreme didn’t do much better with a B+ CinemaScore and an 83 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (The latter does have much better scores on PostTrak, however.)

And, according to Angie Han’s Anaconda review for THR, “An action-comedy starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd and a giant CG snake should be way more fun.” Director Tom Gormican’s meta-take on the previous Anaconda films follows a director (Black) and his crew as they travel to the Amazon to make the defining movie about the storied monster. Thandiwe Newton and Steve Zahn co-star.

Sony says Anaconda is on track for a four-day opening of $22 million from 3,509 theaters. In yet another twist, the pic may have to settle for fourth place if Disney’s Thanksgiving tentpole Zootopia 2 pulls ahead despite being in its fifth weekend. Based on Friday traffic, Zootopia 2 could earn $24 million for the four days. And, in a second twist, Zootopia 2 could beat Marty Supreme and come in second for the three-day weekend proper. (The Zootopia and Avatar sequels have helped to propel Disney past the $6 billion mark in global ticket sales for the first time since the pandemic, a feat it achieved for five consecutive years ending in 2019).

Some distributors, including Disney and A24, are waiting to see how Saturday unfolds before giving four-day estimates for their titles. Usually, they’d be more forthcoming on Saturday morning, but with such an eclectic mix of films on the Christmas marquee, they’ve decided to err on the side of caution.

Elsewhere, Angel Studios’ faith-based David is headed for an impressive fifth-place finish after posting an opening-day gross of $4.6 million on Dec. 25, a record for the Utah-based indie studio that released sleeper hit The Sound of Freedom.

Lionsgate’s femme-skewing thriller The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, is expected to come in a strong fourth, followed by Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants and Focus Features’ Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. The new Jackson-Hudson movie sports glowing reviews from both critics and audiences, along with an A CinemaScore.

Christmas Day falling on a Thursday is a dream scenario for theater owners, since the long holiday weekend will be free and clear. And the final two weeks of the year are the most lucrative for moviegoing, considering that schools and colleges are closed, with many adults off from work as well.

Dec. 26, 9:15: Updated with Christmas Day grossers.
Dec. 27, 9:00: Updated with revised estimates.

This story was originally published Dec. 25.

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