Avatar: The Way of Water to Cross $500 Million Mark Worldwide After Less Than a Week in Theaters
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20th Century Studios Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
The sequel to Avatar is blowing the box office out of the water.
Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released in theaters Friday, is projected to have earned upwards of $500 million total at the worldwide box office by the end of the day on Tuesday, Deadline reports.
The new milestone comes after The Way of Water pulled in $134 million domestically over opening weekend and another $301 million internationally, for a global total of $435 million, according to Variety.
By comparison, the first Avatar movie made around $77 million domestically over its first weekend back in December 2009, eventually bringing in a total of nearly $750 million domestically and over $2.7 billion worldwide.
Per Variety, Avatar 2 had the fourth-biggest opening weekend of the year. Earlier tracking previously estimated the film would earn $150 million to $175 million domestically and $450 million to $550 million globally with its opening, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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20th Century Studios Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
The sequel stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang and more.
Avatar: The Way of Water is about Jake (Worthington, 46) and Neytiri's (Saldaña, 44) family and "the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure," according to an official synopsis.
In April 2021, James Cameron appeared virtually on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he spoke about the pressure of directing the highly anticipated follow-up films to the epic 2009 sci-fi blockbuster, which currently ranks as the highest-grossing film of all time.
"I cry. I just sit here at my desk and cry all day long because there's no way," he joked. "It's just too much pressure, dude."
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When asked about the budget for Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron — whose budget for the first film was $237 million — told GQ last month that the sequel was "very f---ing" expensive to make.
Cameron, 68, also said he told 20th Century Studios that the film was "the worst business case in movie history," and that it would "have to be the third- or fourth-highest-grossing film in history" to "break even."
In December 2021, the filmmaker told Entertainment Weekly that, given the state of moviegoing amid the pandemic and beyond, he worried whether the subsequent installments would be able to match Avatar's success.
"The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money," said Cameron, who also directed box-office giant Titanic, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary. "We're in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It's all a big roll of the dice."
Avatar: The Way of Water is in theaters now.
