James Cameron's newest blockbuster, Avatar: The Way of Water, has officially grossed $1 billion at the international box office. The film's story picks up a decade after the original Avatar, showing Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family among the Na'vi. After being forced to leave his adoptive tribe, Jake, Neytiri, and their children sought refuge with the Metkayina clan – the reef people of Pandora. Now left to the seas, Jake faces a major surge from the human invaders, while also desperately trying to keep his family safe from the attackers.
As Avatar: The Way of Water continues to play in theaters, it managed to gross $1 billion internationally, according to a report by Avatar 2 made half of $1 billion after one week in theaters worldwide. If it continues along its current path, Avatar: The Way of Water should be able to eclipse the $2 billion mark in overall earnings, which would be another major milestone for Cameron and the crew.
What Avatar's Box Office Means For Its Future
Avatar: The Way of Water is on its way to becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time, based on its earnings. It has already ed Avengers: Age of Ultron (which earned $1.403 billion) and Disney's Frozen II (which earned $1.45 billion), and its earnings don't seem to be slowing, coupled with its dominance in theaters. After Top Gun: Maverick became the #1 2022 film, the Avatar sequel hopes to eventually smash through its box office to become the highest-grossing movie released in 2022, even if it couldn't succeed this within 2022 itself. The film could easily reach the top 10 box office takes of all time if it continues along its current trajectory.
Avatar: The Way of Water was considered a risky film to make since Cameron insisted that the studio filmed Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 back-to-back to avoid Sully's children aging too quickly. Hence, Avatar: The Way of Water's success proved that the Avatar franchise could still afford to take some serious risks. Of course, it isn't without problems. Cameron initially exaggerated that the success of Avatar 2 means $2 billion at the box office (and has since corrected the number to $1.5 billion), so there is some ground to reach Cameron's goals, which is very possible – currently sitting at $1.48 billion worldwide.
With three more Avatar sequels in development, Avatar: The Way of Water needs to break box office records to make the expensive production worthwhile, which has recently reached its breakeven point. However, Disney owns the top-selling films Avatar ($2.922 billion), Avengers: Endgame ($2.797 billion), Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens ($2.069 billion), and Avengers: Infinity War ($2.048 billion), and a stake in Titanic ($2.201 billion), so the company expects Cameron's newest film to reach similar thresholds to make their investment worthwhile. Cameron has compared Avatar sequels to episodic TV, and the success of Avatar: The Way of Water could mean that Avatar 6 and 7 may hit theaters someday.
Source: Variety
