M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Cabin’ Knocks ‘Avatar’ Out of First Place

James Cameron now knows to never send for whom the cabin knocks; it knocks for he!

By which we mean that M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural thriller, Knock at the Cabin, shall go down in history as the movie that dethroned Avatar: The Way of Water at the domestic box office. The Dave Bautista-led eschatological morality play in the woods, based on Paul G. Tremblay’s novel The Cabin at the End of the World, earned $14.2 million this weekend, ending seven weeks of enormous, whale-sized ticket gulps for Cameron’s Pandora-set adventure film. 

Seven seems to be the magic number here, as the record-smashing first Avatar film, released in December 2009, also had seven weeks in the domestic top spot. (It was the Lasse Halström-directed adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s Dear John starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried that did the dethroning back in February 2010, should you ever be in need of some excellent bar trivia.)

Moreover, Deadline points out that Knock is M. Night Shyamalan’s seventh movie to open at number one. The Philly-based auteur has been working with more moderate budgets beginning with 2015’s The Visit, and has found himself in a significant groove since then. 

He also had an assist this weekend from some pretty special ladies. Also tackling (<—see what I did there?) James Cameron was 80 For Brady, the sports comedy film starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno. Indeed, it actually sold more tickets than Knock did, but at many chains (like AMC) all tickets were at matinee prices. This was a, forgive me, Hail Mary move on behalf of Paramount and exhibitors, recognizing that older-skewing ticket buyers have been reluctant to return to theaters after the pandemic. It looks to have paid off. The domestic tally for the film was $12.5 million, just a few field goals away from a complete victory.

Avatar: The Way of Water’s first weekend at number two came in at $10.8 million. Its global box office currently sits at $2.174 billion, not far behind Titanic’s $2.207. That number will soon increase when Titanic gets a re-release in theaters in just a few days with a polish of love-it-or-hate-it High Frame Rate technology. Of the four all-time top-grossing films in history, Cameron can claim authorship of three, with the first Avatar up top at $2.899 billion. (That pesky Avengers: Endgame interrupts things at the number two spot with $2.794 billion.)

Looking at domestic numbers only, The Way of Water floats at the number 10 spot. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still number one in North America, with $936.6 million in receipts.