'M3GAN' slays at box office for second weekend in a row with additional $21M

M3GAN can't stop and more importantly, she won't stop! After beating out early projections last week, Universal Pictures' new killer doll flick (which garnered near-universal acclaim from critics on Rotten Tomatoes) continued to slay at the domestic box office over the long holiday weekend with an additional $21 million in ticket sales, bumping up its at-home haul to just over $60 million. 

Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore, tells SYFY WIRE that M3GAN is "an unqualified success in a January that many considered to be merely a quiet box office waiting room of sorts until the arrival of the next Ant-Man movie in mid-February."

Once again, the techno-thriller produced by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse took second place in North America, only bowing in deference to Avatar: The Way of Water. James Cameron's long-awaited return to Pandora is now the sixth-highest grossing blockbuster in history and currently ranks between Avengers: Infinity War and last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Internationally, M3GAN scared up an extra $34.2 million, easily placing the release over the $90 million mark and on its way to a worldwide haul of $100 million+. In other words, the possibility of a sequel gets better with each passing day.

"Positioning M3GAN as a PG-13 entertaining blast of a scare-fest suitable for teenagers was a stroke of genius and played heavily in the film’s ongoing appeal for a meme-crazed, social media savvy target audience that is embracing one of the coolest, creepy and strangely charismatic creatures to come off the horror cinema assembly line," Dergarabedian adds. "Wrapping it all up in a tight, well-constructed, hugely entertaining confection of a movie has made this an unexpected and most welcome hit in the early going of the box office year."  

DreamWorks Animation's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish nabbed the third domestic spot in its fourth weekend with a holiday sum of $19 million, bringing its North American tally up to $112 million. On a global scale, the critically-acclaimed sequel to 2011's Puss in Boots has brought in almost $250 million. The family-friendly outing currently holds a near-perfect score of 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Antonio Banderas leads a star-studded cast that includes Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillen, Florence Pugh, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Wagner Moura.

M3GAN and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish are now playing in theaters everywhere.

Want another killer doll fix? Stream the first season of Chucky on Peacock.