Avatar's sequel, "The Way of Water," continues to sail to the top, having secured the spot for the third highest-grossing film released in 2022. The movie already brought in $855 million — lagging behind only "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Jurassic World Dominion: — and is a lock to surpass $1 billion.
Analysts predicted the movie would bring in a whopping $56 million in North America in what film production studios estimated Sunday. If forecasts are true, it’s a surefire sign that the sequel may stay afloat as we enter into the new year and approach the massive expectations that met its release.
James Cameron’s Avatar extravaganza for 20th Century Studios has made $253.7 million domestically in its first ten days of release, compared to $212.7 million in the same stretch for 2009′s first installment, which would go on to become the highest-grossing film of all time.
Thirteen years ago, in 2009, “Avatar” skyrocketed to the top of the list of highest-grossing films.
Five years after starting production on “The Way of Water,” Cameron unveiled the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time.
In his interview with the AP News the day after the movie debuted in London, Cameron describes the experience of finally having the movie out in the world as “surreal.”
“You work on these films [while] kind of in a bubble. You create this world around you with your artists, with your casts and so on,” Cameron says of the film with out-of-this-world animation. “Then one day you realize, ‘Oh crap, we’re going to have to show this to people at some point.’”
Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, said, “This is James Cameron’s first $100 million opener.” He continued, “For this movie to have opened that big and only dropped 58%, it shows it has staying power.”
With more holiday time coming and no comparable competition until February, when Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is released, it’s also clear sailing for the film looking ahead.
The Way of Water’s success in its first two weeks was surreal, but there’s a caveat. “The biggest foe that Avatar is facing now is the weather,” Dergarabedian said.
Storms across the U.S. could keep people home, however, as they wreaked havoc in some cities during the holidays. Despite this, “The Way of Water” continues to make waves and remains one of the moviegoers’ top picks this season.
Catch “Avatar: The Way of Water” in theaters worldwide. Watch the trailer here:
