Box Office Report: Jack Black's Anaconda Don't Want None ...

It’s the last box office report of 2025. How was the year in movies? Well, Hollywood is saying it sucked, with the post-lockdown and strikes timeline being one of reduced grosses and cinema attendances. The biggest movie of the year came from China and didn’t need North American audiences in the slightest to get to $2 billion. A few expected smash hits underperformed. A bunch of craven losers are trying to make their fortunes from extended bouts of cultural vandalism. It’s a lot. But hey, we hope you had a lovely holiday season!

Avatar: Fire & Ash was the big Christmas week title. In its second week, it earned $64 million, bringing its domestic gross to $217.6 million. Worldwide, it’s already soared past $760.4 million. That’s easily put it over F1 and Superman in terms of the year’s top grossers. For all of the grumbling that this movie isn’t doing as well as the second one, it’s still pulling in money hand over fist, especially with its international audiences, which have always loved these movies. A dry January will certainly help matters too.

Timothee Chalamet is a movie-star. Marty Supreme expanded its release to over 2,600 theatres nationwide and it earned just under $15.6 million for its troubles ($28 million since Christmas Day). A24 put a lot of money into this one — it’s their most expensive production to date — and gave it a very weird but inescapable promotional campaign to sell it to the masses. It’s clearly working on some level. Timmy’s star power isn’t hurting. He’s got devoted fans and enough name recognition thanks to stuff like Dune. This one could do well in the long-term as awards season plays out.

The highest new release of the weekend was Anaconda, a comedic (?) redo of the schlocky ’90s big snake movie, starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Audiences weren’t enthused (neither was our boss), and it only warned $14.5 million ($23 million since Christmas) landing it at number five.

At number eight is Song Sung Blue, a biopic about a couple who worked as a Neil Diamond tribute act. Yes, really. It earned $7.6 million ($12 million, so far). Moreover, it has great audience scores and Kate Hudson is thirsty for that Oscar nomination. Keep your eyes peeled.

Speaking of Oscar players … To qualify for Academy Awards consideration, your movie needs to play in theatres in New York and/or L.A. for a minimum of one week between January and December. So, a lot of movies are getting that push after festival runs in the last week of the year, preparing for a wider release in January should the various nominations of the season bless them. Step forward some of our contenders.

No Other Choice, the latest film by Park Chan-wook, is a big favourite of the season. Did you know that Park has never been nominated for an Oscar? Yeah, it still infuriates me. That could hopefully change with this new drama. It grossed $312,687 from 13 locations.

Jim Jarmusch, one of the true kings of American indie cinema, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival with Father Mother Sister Brother. It took in $94,971 from four theatres. The Testament of Ann Lee is Mona Fastvold’s fascinating historical musical drama about the founder of the Shakers, with Amanda Seyfried in the title role. She’s ready to fight Kate Hudson for that nomination. The movie sang up $76,000 from four cinemas.

Also in indie release news: Australian drama The Plague grossed $21,232; and the British historical drama The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes, brought in $16,368.

This coming week sees the release of … well, not much, really. A Kidz Bop concert? A Lupin movie? Look, it’s New Year. We’ll all have other plans.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.