Sequel movie Avatar: The Way of Water remains at the top of the UK box office for a third weekend as Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody comes in at number 2 on its debut.

UK weekend box office top 5 breakdown 30th - 1st January 2023

Spending a third week on top of the UK box office is the sequel movie to Avatar which takes £7.6 Million, a 35% increase on its Christmas weekend total.

The movie has now taken a magnificent £44.9 Million at the UK box office after 3 weeks of release.

It is £12 Million ahead of Avatar at the same point of its run and for many years that was the top grossing movie of all time in the UK.

The movie is the 3rd top grossing film of 2022, but is fast catching Top Gun: Maverick and will likely be the top grossing movie released in 2022 before the end of its run.

Highest new movie this weekend

The bio-pic of Whitney Houston starring Naomi Ackie and directed by Kasi Lemmons got released on Boxing Day this year and lands at number 2 on the UK box office.

The movie takes £3.3 Million on its debut despite getting quite a panning from critics.

The movie is looking for Oscar glory which if it achieves could boost the gross quite a but especially around the February window, and even more so if it wins!

Falling to number 2 this weekend is the musical version of the Roald Dahl story of Matilda which takes £2 Million over the New Year weekend, a 45% increase over last weekend.

The former number 1 movie has now taken £20.8 Million over its 6 weeks of release.

The sequel movie to Black Panther climbs back up the box office to number 4 this weekend with a gross of £436,156, a 54% increase over last weekend.

The movies weekend gross being so low and the movie still climbing to number 4 is a reflection of the current state of the box office and shows how much Avatar: The Way of Water is taking from the box office.

The movie has taken a total of £33.2 Million in the UK and is well below that of the first movie which had taken nearly £50 Million 8 weeks into its run.

Disney's latest animated movie, which had been considered a relative flop at the box officem, climbs to number 5 this weekend with a gross of £280,777, a 49% increase.

The movie has grossed a total of £3.1 Million at the UK box office which is about half that of Disney's previous movie Encanto.