Finance
Only six weeks after its release, award-winning filmmaker James Cameron’s blockbuster sequel ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ has surpassed $2 billion in global ticket sales.
According to ‘Variety,’ it is the sixth film in history – and the first in pandemic times – to cross the coveted milestone, joining an exclusive club that includes ‘Avatar,’ ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ ‘Titanic,’ ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
Cameron is now responsible for three of the top six highest-grossing films of all time. He is also the only director whose three films have grossed more than $2 billion. Notably, Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri in the “Avatar” franchise, has now appeared in four of the six films that have grossed more than $2 billion.
She also reprises her role in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ role of Gamora.,
Notably, ‘The Way of Water’ has officially surpassed the lofty goal set by Cameron prior to the film’s release. Before the sequel hit theaters, he told GQ that it represents “the worst business case in movie history,” because it needs to be one of the top three or four grossing films of all time just to break even.
However, it will take the fourth- and fifth-largest films, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ ($2.07 billion) and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ ($2.04 billion), to achieve that feat in the coming days.
The original ‘Avatar,’ which debuted in theaters 13 years ago, is still the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing $2.9 billion.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ trails closely behind in second place with $2.79 billion, while ‘Titanic’ stands as the third-highest grossing release ever with $2.19 billion.
So far, ‘The Way of Water’ has generated $598 million at the domestic box office and $1.4 billion internationally. Overseas, the standout markets are China ($229 million), France ($129 million), Germany ($117 million), Korea ($96 million) and the United Kingdom ($81 million). It’s especially impressive that ‘Avatar 2’ managed to crack $2 billion, a benchmark that’s been impossible in COVID times, because not every market is re-connecting with the Na’vi.
The sequel isn’t playing in Russia, where the original grossed $116 million, and it’s flopping in Japan with $28 million, a significant decrease from the $176 million haul of the first film.
The long-awaited sequel to 2009’s ‘Avatar’ opened in December and has remained enormously popular in the weeks since.
Source:OCN
