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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - "Avatar: The Way of Water" has taken the box office crown for a third consecutive week, grossing another $63.4 million over the New Year's weekend, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
Director James Cameron's follow-up to his 2009 special effects blockbuster has taken in more than $421 million in theaters in the United States and Canada, and over $956 million internationally. It was far ahead of "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," a "Shrek" spinoff that took second place for the second consecutive weekend with $16.3 million Friday through Sunday, Comscore reported.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" was third with $4.8 million in its eighth week of release.
The Whitney Houston biopic "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" was fourth with $4.2 million in its second week, followed by "Babylon" -- also in its second week -- with $2.7 million.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases, as estimated by Comscore, were "Violent Night" ($2.1 million), "The Whale" ($1.3 million), "The Fabelmans" ($1.1 million), "The Menu" ($1 million) and "Strange World" ($538,000).
This weekend's overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $99.2 million, an improvement over the $85.9 million from last week's Christmas weekend. The year-to-date total is up to $7.234 billion -- an increase of 63% over the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.