After being in theaters for just over a month, Avatar: The Way of Water – the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 hit – has officially grossed over $2.024 billion.
It took over Spider-Man: No Way Home’s spot as the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time last week; to move up to the No. 5 spot, currently held by Avengers: Infinity War, it needs to make over $2.05 billion.
Now it has become the first ever pandemic-era movie to hit the $2 billion mark and Cameron’s third movie to gross that much in box office receipts. He’s the only director in history to have three movies gross over $2 billion.
After 13 years in the making, all eyes were on the Avatar sequel to see if it would make its budget back and turn a profit for Disney. (Disney spent a reported $460 million to create and promote the movie, according to Variety.) Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the box office has experienced major struggles, causing widespread concern and even bankruptcies in the theater industry. Then last year’s Top Gun: Maverick seemed to re-energize moviegoers, proving that the theater industry was far from dead. The Tom Cruise-led film grossed over $1.489 billion in 2022 and seemed to be the uncontested, almost sole reason for movie-going’s resurgence—that was, until Avatar: The Way of Water swept in to make $1.5 billion at the end of 2022 and take its spot as the highest grossing movie of last year.
Now, as the movie reaches yet another milestone, the question becomes: How much money can it make before it loses steam? Here’s a breakdown of how and where the movie made its money, where it falls in the all-time box office, and how it speaks, yet again, to Cameron’s ability to make a riveting sequel that gets people back in theaters.
(time.com)
