Despite the arrival of three new releases, including a high-profile studio film, Avatar: The Way of Water was still, to paraphrase its director’s old declaration, “king of the world!”

James Cameron’s sequel to his 2009 original fended off the trio of debuting movies and grossed $82 million to stay on top. This weekend’s stats could have been higher but the severe winter storm in the East and Midwest dragged the attendance numbers down. Also, note that the figures in this story are four-day holiday weekend estimates.

After two weeks, The Way of Water, with a cast of returning and new actors, led by Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, and Edie Falco, has accumulated $279.7 million domestically.

The hat-wearing, swashbuckling cat, also known as the macho gato, swung back into theaters and placed second. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, directed by Joel Crawford and co-directed by Januel Mercado, picked up $17.77 million.

Eleven years since the first Puss in Boots movie, Antonio Banderas voices again his beloved feline hero, who is reunited with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek, also back).

New characters include Harvey Guillen (Perro), Florence Pugh (Goldilocks), Olivia Colman (Mama Bear), Wagner Moura (The Big Bad Wolf), Ray Winstone (Papa Bear), John Mulaney (Jack Horner), and Samson Kayo (Baby Bear).

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, director Kasi Lemmons’ biopic of the late great vocalist, garnered $7.5 million and ranked third.

Naomi Ackie plays Whitney Houston in the film which chronicles the rise of the music superstar who also appeared in movies. Stanley Tucci (Clive Davis), Ashton Sanders (Bobby Brown), Tamara Tunie (Cissy Houston), and Nafessa Williams (Robyn Crawford) are also featured.

Damien Chazelle’s highly touted Brad Pitt starrer, Babylon, could only manage to take fourth place. Also written by Chazelle, the big-budgeted comedy-drama on multiple characters in Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties earned $5.3 million.

Will the holidays see increased ticket sales for this film portraying Los Angeles’ decadence and excesses, as the city grows from a desert into a sprawling metropolis, as the early days of movie-making segue from the silents to the talkies?

Aside from Pitt, the movie also top bills Margot Robbie, Diego Calva (in a breakout role), Jean Smart, Olivia Wilde, Flea, and Tobey Maguire.

In its seventh week, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still in the top five and doing robust business. The cinematic sendoff to the original movie’s star, Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa), and which launches Letitia Wright as Shuri, the franchise’s new lead, made $4.7 million. Ryan Coogler’s film has now made a total of $427.3 million.

Comprising the rest of the top ten were, in order: David Harbour’s Violent Night, $4.2 million; Brendan Fraser’s The Whale, $1.3 million; Ralph Fiennes’ The Menu, $900,000; Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, $880,000; and Disney’s Strange World, $675,000.

Offshore, Avatar 2 was also king of the world. Cameron’s second of a series of franchise installments, which shifts the action to Pandora’s oceans, collected $168.6 million in over 50 territories. That increased the international tally to $601.7 million and the worldwide cumulative to $855.4 million.

The movie’s big advantage is its release in China – a rare opportunity coveted by Hollywood – where the weekend’s grosses of $25.9 million added to the total so far in that country to $100.5 million.

The Way of Water is also doing well in Korea, Brazil, Germany, India, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, and Italy.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which opened a week earlier internationally, netted $16.5 million so far.

Wakanda Forever, in the meantime, is nearing the $800 million global benchmark.