Despite being in theaters for only six weeks, Avatar: The Way of Water has already grossed $2.054 billion at the global box office, making it only the sixth film to attain this milestone. With this amount, the James Cameron creation has clawed its way up the all-time global box office highest earners chart to the fifth position, displacing Marvel’s blockbuster superhero film Avengers: Infinity War.
With this incredible feat, The Way of Water is now the third James Cameron-directed film to crack the $2 billion mark, after the original Avatar and Titanic. It is also the highest-grossing film as well as the first title to gross as high as $2 billion after the pandemic since Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed $1.92 billion.
$603 million of Avatar: The Way of Water’s gross comes from the US domestic market, which is still less than what the Tom Cruise-led film, Top Gun: Maverick, earned at the US box office. As a result, it is the second highest-grossing film of 2022 in the US despite the fact it is the biggest earner worldwide. Notwithstanding, the Avatar sequel is the fourth highest-grossing international release of all time with $1.451 billion behind the original Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, and Titanic, which means that the bulk of its earnings has come from international markets.
The Way of Water has enjoyed more than just commercial success. The film has also received several positive reviews and has a 71% Rotten Tomatoes rating from 417 critics. It has also been nominated for multiple prestigious awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, as well as Best Picture and Best Sound at the forthcoming 95th Academy Awards
The first Avatar movie, which was released in 2009, remains the highest-grossing film of all time with $2.923 billion. Avatar 2 has had an incredible theatrical run but it still has a long way to go to surpass this figure.
If The Way of Water can maintain its trajectory, it is only a matter of time before it rises higher on the chart. Ahead of it are the 2015 film 2015 Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens with $2.071 billion, another Cameron-directed film Titanic at $2.194 billion, and Avengers: Endgame with $2.799 billion in the fourth, third, and second positions respectively.
While it is a stretch for the film to get to the number one position, given the blockbusters lined up in February, it could very well reach the third position and knock Titanic off its perch. It might have to settle for the fourth position, though, with Titanic scheduled for a re-release in February to commemorate its 25th anniversary, which will widen the gap between the romance tragedy and the epic sci-fi.
In other news, Cameron recently revealed that the next Avatar installment will see Lo’ak narrate instead of Jake Sully and introduce viewers to another Na’vi tribe, known as the Ash People. Also, producer Landau recently revealed there are no plans for Vin Diesel to join the world of Pandora despite several reports to the contrary.
