Avatar: The Way of Water became the fifth highest-grossing film of all time at the box office worldwide. James Cameron's science fiction epic achieved this feat by passing Avengers: Infinity War.
Released over a decade after its predecessor, audiences wondered if Avatar 2 would receive enough attention to earn enough at the box office to justify its massive budget and long wait. Cameron said Avatar 2 would break even if it became the fourth or fifth highest-grossing film, and now it has achieved this goal.
Per Variety, Avatar: The Way of Water took Avengers: Infinity War's spot after grossing $2.054 billion at the worldwide box office. Avengers: Infinity War earned $2.052 billion worldwide since it was released in theaters in 2018. Now, Avatar: The Way of Water is only behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Titanic, Avengers: Endgame, and the first Avatar movie. Variety speculates Avatar: The Way of Water has a solid chance of surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens before moviegoers start flocking to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on February 17.
Internationally, Avatar: The Way of Water is the fourth-biggest movie due to its $1.5 billion haul. At the domestic box office, The Way of Water ranks as the thirteenth highest-grossing film with a $603 million total, but Avatar 2 is only the sixth film to earn $2 billion worldwide. Cameron's film is also the highest-grossing film of the COVID-19 pandemic era, besting the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick.
Cameron previously confirmed Avatar 2 earned enough money for sequels to move forward, so fans likely weren't worried about the franchise's future. Still, as Avatar 2 climbs the box office chart, studio executives are undoubtedly celebrating the film becoming more than profitable.
The franchise still has critics, and some believe Cameron's Avatar sequels need better stories. However, the box office results indicate that the Avatar films are resonating with moviegoers on some level, and its recent Best Picture nomination at the 2023 Academy Awards underscores this point. Fans say it is foolish to bet against Cameron, and it's hard to deny this because three of his films are among the top 5 highest-grossing movies of all time.
Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters.
Source: Variety