Avatar: The Way of Water is now part of the multi-billion dollar movie club. In just 14 days since its release, the James Cameron-directed Avatar sequel has surpassed the global box office threshold this year, behind the record set by Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. The latter accomplished the feat in just 12 days and making it the first film in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic to achieve this milestone. Avatar: The Way of Water is the sixth film ever to gross $1 billion in its first two weeks of release, and the fourth Disney release to do so. According to the latest figures available, Avatar 2 has US$712.7 million (approx. Rs. 2.625 billion) from US and Canada, which brings its total running balance to $1.025 billion (approx. Rs. 8.487 billion).
In addition to Avatar: The Way of Waterin 2022, only two other films have managed to surpass the billion-dollar mark — the Tom Cruise-led one Top Gun: Maverick with $1.4 billion (approx. Rs. 11,592 crore) and the Chris Pratt-Starrer Jurassic World Dominion manufacturing $1.003 billion (about Rs. 8,304 crore) in just over four months. The former just managed to reach the threshold 31 days since debut in cinemas.
This year would also be the first in a long time that a superhero or war of stars Film hasn’t topped the global box office charts — not the 2020 lineup, which has seen very few theatrical releases thanks to it COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns. The last time we saw a similar case was in 2014, where Transformers: Age of Extinction dominated with US$1.1 billion (approx. Rs. 9,105 billion) in global ticket sales.
While a performance of this magnitude is seen as hugely positive in most other cases, it’s still unclear if avatar 2 can reach the estimated breakeven point. Remember, Cameron suggested that the film must become the “third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” to achieve that goal. These positions currently occupied by his own 1997 disaster romance film titanicand Star Wars: The Force Awakens – both films have grossed $2 billion (approx. Rs. 16,551 billion) apiece. There’s also no official word on the budget, with several reports Citing a range of US$350 million (approx. Rs.2,898 crore) to US$400 million (approx. Rs.3,312 crore).
As previously indicated, Avatar: The Way of Water has surpassed Jurassic World Dominion to become the #2 release of 2022 worldwide and #3 in the pandemic era. The film has little to no main subject Hollywood Competition until February when the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – the next Marvel movie – hits theaters. This clear runway should only add to the success of Avatar 2.
Avatar: The Way of Water is now in cinemas worldwide. In India, Avatar 2 is available in English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.
Join us for the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360 CES 2023 hub.
