Avatar: The Way of Water has already earned more than half a billion dollars in a short time in theaters. The film is the long-delayed sequel to 2009's Avatar, which still stands as one of the most profitable films of all time. It brings back original stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña to lead a brand new adventure alongside plenty of familiar faces and new friends and foes as humanity returns to the moon Pandora with an eye on exterminating the native Na'vi population once and for all. Although The Way of Water opened below expectations, it still had a bigger weekend than the original film, showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the box office of Avatar: The Way of Water has already scored another win after the film's December 16 release by racking up the second-highest single-day Wednesday gross of the entire year. With its domestic total of $182.9 million combined with its international gross of $426.8 million, that brings its combined worldwide total to $609.7 million in just seven days. Although it still has a long way to go to match Avatar's overall run, this is still tracking considerably ahead of where the original film was at this point in its run.
Why Avatar: The Way of Water Probably Still Won't be the #1 Movie of 2022
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently on track to become the highest-grossing film in international markets. This is because the James Cameron sequel scored a coveted Chinese release, making it just one of a few American movies to play in that territory since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this does not mean it will top the overall worldwide charts at the close of 2022.
This partially results from the film being released so late in the year, giving it only 15 days to climb as high up the chart as possible before New Year's. However, even with that considered, it faces considerable competition from another long-awaited legacy sequel: the Tom Cruise mega-hit Top Gun: Maverick. The film pulled off an unusual modern box office trick, raking in a nearly equal amount of money at both the domestic and international box office. Maverick's mind-boggling domestic gross of $718.7 million will allow it to remain in the top slot at the end of the year, even if Avatar 2 eventually makes more than its worldwide total of $1.49 billion.
Can The Way Of Water Be Profitable?
While there seems to be no doubt that Avatar: The Way of Water will be an enormous hit, Cameron has previously admitted that the movie will need to be one of the highest-grossing films ever to break even. It likely won't begin to see a profit until it passes $2 billion, but that money doesn't necessarily have to come from its theatrical gross entirely. If the film performs well when it is released on digital and physical media (presumably several months down the line, holding off on a home release just like Top Gun: Maverick) and moves a lot of tie-in merchandise, those profits will also help the film recoup its massive budget.
Source: THR
