Avatar 2 overtakes Furious 7 as 10th highest-grossing movie of all time

Avatar: The Way of Water is quickly approaching the record held by its predecessor.

The sequel to 2009's Avatar has passed both Top Gun: Maverick and Furious 7 to become the 10th highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide after playing for 20 days in North American theaters and 22 days in international locations.

Furious 7 was the previous 10th spot holder with a lifetime gross of $1.515 billion since its release in 2015. The Top Gun sequel was just behind that with $1.489 since its debut earlier this year. Avatar: The Way of Water has now accumulated $1.516 billion globally, which includes $33.8 million worldwide from Wednesday showings this week, as reported by Disney.

The studio projects the movie will soon surpass 2012's The Avengers, with its lifetime global gross of $1.521 billion, by the end of Thursday to become the ninth highest-grossing film.

20th Century Studios; Everett Collection James Cameron's 'Avatar: The Way of Water' has surpassed 'Furious 7' to become the 10th highest-grossing movie of all time.

This also means that Avatar movies now comprise two of the 10 top-grossing movie titles in history. The first Avatar, which has benefited from multiple rereleases in theaters over the years, still maintains the No. 1 spot.

Directed again by James Cameron, a proven box-office hit-maker, Avatar: The Way of Water picks up years after the events of the previous film. The Sullys, including the biological and adopted children of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), have fled their home in the forests of Pandora as they are being hunted by the RDA and Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who returns in a brand-new Na'vi body. The family takes refuge with the Metkayina, a tribe of Na'vi who've adapted to ocean living.

As it stands, the sequel is the No. 1 global movie release of 2022 and the No. 2 domestic release of the past year, behind Top Gun: Maverick.

Four Avatar sequels, including The Way of Water, have been scheduled for Disney's theatrical release calendar through 2028, but Cameron shared his more realistic viewpoint on the future of the franchise. The filmmaker previously confirmed to EW that the third film was shot simultaneously with the second, as was the first act of Avatar 4. But the success of The Way of Water would determine whether the fourth and fifth installments would ever be completed.

At this rate, we can confidentially predict we'll see a lot more Na'vi in the future.

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