Imagine, in the post pandemic era, where theatres are struggling and films are not doing well on the box office simply because audiences have grown out of the habit of stepping out of their houses to watch films, would you have imagined that a film released in mid December would still be running in theatres till mid February? That too, being #1 at the box office for seven weeks consecutively. Well, if there is any film which could have done that then it is Avatar: The Way of Water. The much awaited sequel to Cameron’s magnum opus Avatar- which is still the highest grossing film of all time… by a big margin. The sequel has shattered many records, so much so that if I were to list all of them, one article would not suffice. The film was surpassed the lifetime collections of many films.
It was sitting at the number four spot of the Highest Grossing list just behind another Cameron film – Titanic. Slowly and steadily The Way of Water was bridging the gap the between the two films and as it was about to take over, Titanic re-released on Valentine’s Day on account of its 25th anniversary, restricting Avatar to snatch the #3 spot. Many believed that due to the re-release The Way of Water would consistently fall short of Titanic and would not make a place in the Top 3. However, just a week later, Avatar: The Way of Water has once again done the impossible.
Avatar: The Way of Water Joins the Top 3 Highest Grossing Films List!
After a week long battle with Titanic, Avatar: The Way of Water has finally managed to sink the Titanic and claim #3 spot in the highest grossing films list. Even with the release of Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Avatar managed to keep its boat afloat and steady intake of cash which has led to its victory over Titanic. Currently Avatar: The Way of Water stands at $2.244 billion ($658.4 million domestic) while Titanic stands at $2.243 billion ($672 million domestic). I know it is a small gap but it is what it is.
Avatar 2’s domestic collection has not seen any growth since the past few weeks, the bulk of its collections have come from overseas markets who cannot get over this technical and visual masterpiece. Avatar 2 now sits behind Avengers: Endgame- $2.799 billion and its predecessor $2.9 billion. It would take some magic for the sequel to surpass Endgame at this stage. It needs more than a half a billion to get #2. Which as of now seems impossible. Just like the first Avatar, regular re-releases may in the future lead the film to beat Endgame.
As for beating the original Avatar, well that certainly looks impossible, once again maybe in the future. It would be interesting to see how much The Way of Water finally collects at the end of its box office run, how close can it come to Endgame in the next few weeks? The Way of Water is nearly at the end of its box run, at best it has a few weeks before it completes a glorious run. Here are the Top 5 Highest Grossing films:
- Avatar – $2.9237B
- Avengers: Endgame – $2.7994B
- Avatar: The Way of Water – $2.2444B
- Titanic – $2.2431B
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $2.0713B
It no longer matters but Avatar 2 remains to be the most expensive film ever to be produced with an insane production budget of $460 million. The success of the film has led to the official renewal of more Avatar sequels which would release at key intervals in this decade, with the third one coming in December 2024. Considering the franchise has already collected more than $5 billion with only two films, it has to be seen how much more will the upcoming sequels add to that number.
Watch the Official Trailer For Avatar 2: The Way of Water on YouTube:
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently playing in theatres near you.
If you have any questions regarding Avatar: The Way of Water, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
