Outside of Avatar: The Way of Water, a brutal weather system named Storm Elliott is taking the merriment out of holiday moviegoing at the North American box office.

The bomb cyclone has brought freezing temperatures, high winds, snow and ice to a wide swath of the country. Traditionally, the Christmas corridor is one of the most lucrative times of the year for Hollywood studios and theater owners. This year is an exception, between a less crowded marquee, Storm Elliott and ongoing concerns about COVID-19, the flu and the RSV virus. Another bummer: it’s never great when Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday and Christmas on a Sunday. Put another way, studios are already looking to next week to make up for lost ground.

20th Century and Disney's Avatar 2 will easily win the four-day holiday weekend in North America. Overall revenue for Christmas Day was just $34.4 million, the worst showing in at least two decades. The Way of Water collected a sizable $168.6 million over Christmas weekend overseas. DreamWorks Animation and Universal's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will have no trouble coming in No. 2.

The Last Wish has earned a total of $32.5 million for a projected global cume of $57.2 million through Monday. I Wanna Dance With Somebody collected a very modest $2.6 million from its first 31 international markets. Babylon, which received a C+ CinemaScore, is looking like a major disappointment unless it rebounds next week.

Among new offerings, Sarah Polley’s acclaimed Women Talking opened Friday in eight theaters. The MGM and UAR film, like numerous other titles, is no doubt being impacted by freezing temperatures in key markets such as New York. The film is projecting a $53,000 four-day debut for a location average of $6,664.

Sony Pictures Classics’ Living opened in three locations in New York and Los Angeles for an estimated four-day gross of $17,300 and location average of roughly $7,078.